Fate's Game
by DoubleL27
Summary: When the DVX and KGB make a deal to smuggle arms out of the US, the CIA and the WSB are forced to send some of their best agents out to handle the job. Alias: Syd/Vaughn GH: Jason/Robin Johnny/OC
1. Default Chapter

Alright this story is a joint effort on my part and my friend Carrie's, the diehard GH and Alias fans that we are. It's amazing what happens when you start discussing Alias and GH all at once late at night and how cool it would be to mix the CIA up with the WSB and more importantly Jason/Robin and Syd/Vaughn.  
  
Alright, for Alias, this is exactly on track up until where the last eppy (end of SD-6) ends. For GH it's completely and totally AU. Jason never came back home, Sonny never married Carly, Johnny has never worked for Sonny, but he's in here. Some people aren't so dead. Basiclly we took the past five years and rewrote them, with certain things remaining the same. There are a few characters that Carrie and I have made up, and are recognizable from some of our other stuff.  
  
For those of you who may be a bit confused about history and such, it will all be explained as we go along, we promise.  
  
So read and enjoy.  
  
Laura&Carrie  
  
Chapter 1  
  
CIA Offices: LA-11:15  
  
"Steph come on. We have to meet Devlin and Kendall in five minutes." Johnny O'Brien called out to his wife Stephanie.  
  
He heard her mumble something, but couldn't make out what it was exactly she was saying. A minute later she walk out of the bathroom and into the hallway. "Can you tell I was thrown out of a third story window yesterday morning?"  
  
"You look beautiful, you always do."  
  
"You're so sweet." She said with a smile. "But seriously did I cover up all the cuts and bruises."  
  
"Yes, now come on we're going to be late."  
  
They rode the elevator to Devlin's office. His secretary told them he wasn't ready to see them yet, and directed them to the waiting area. Two other agents were already waiting. "I don't know why you always worry so much about being on time. Devlin is never ready to meet with us anyway," Stephanie grumbled as they were sent to the side.  
  
Johnny looked at his wife with a pointed look. "Steph, we have to be professional, and being professional means being on time."  
  
Resiting the urge to roll her eyes Steph looked around the room. "Johnny, isn't that Bristow and Vaughn over there?" she asked, changing the subject.  
  
He looked at the other agents for a minute. "Yeah."  
  
They sat in silence for a few minutes. Steph occasionally stole a glance at the other agents. "Johnny look." She said quietly.  
  
"What?"  
  
"Look at those two. With looks like that resistance is futile."  
  
"You can play matchmaker after we're done with the briefing okay Steph."  
  
Devlin's secretary came into the waiting room. "Agents O'Brien, Agent Bristow, and Agent Vaughn Mr. Devlin is ready to see you now."  
  
The foursome went into the office and sat down around the large table, Johnny and Steph on one side, Sydney and Vaughn on the other. Devlin stood at the head of the table looking none to pleased with the entire arrangement. "We need the four of you to go on a highly dangerous and highly important mission." Devlin said tensely.  
  
The four shared a look immediately knowing how serious the situation was. "What exactly will we be doing?" Vaughn asked.  
  
"The four of you, along with a pair of agents from the WSB."  
  
"The WSB?" Stephanie interrupted him, definitely curious as to why they would be involved with anything CIA. "Sorry sir," she said after seeing the cold look he gave her.  
  
"As I was saying," he began with a pointed look at Steph. "The four of you along with Agents Morgan of the WSB will be going to Hawaii. We recently found out that DVX and KBG have formed an alliance. We believe they are using Hawaii to import and export weapons."  
  
"What kind of weapons?" Johnny asked.  
  
"Chemical weapons, including a particularly deadly strain of Anthrax and other assorted firearms and weapons of such," he told them as he passed them files that contained all the information that had been collected on the smuggling ring.  
  
"Where do we come in?" Sydney spoke up.  
  
"The six of you are going to be going on a working vacation to Hawaii. You will be going as married couples on vacation. I assume that won't be a problem for Agents O'Brien and Morgan. But Agent Bristow and Agent Vaughn you have to look every bit as married as they do. No one can suspect that the two of you are anything but blissfully head over heels in love." He paused for a moment, before continuing on. "This mission is a matter of international security. There can be no mistakes, this must be flawless."  
  
"Are the six of us supposed to go there like we are all together, or are we supposed to meet there and hit off?" Steph asked, trying to digest the seriousness of their mission.  
  
"Glad you asked. Stephanie you and Sydney are going to be best friends from college; maid of Honor at each other's wedding, and all the other things that best friends do," Deviln explained. "Because the two of you are so close, your husbands are close as well. The four of you should get together and get each other's lives memorized. This mission is going to begin in two weeks that gives you guys ample time to get to know each other. In addition, it might be a good idea to spend time with each other's family in your hometown."  
  
"What about Agents Morgan?" Vaughn asked, already not liking the interference. "How do they come into the picture?"  
  
"They will be flying into LAX tomorrow. The four of you will pick them at 11:30am. Agent Vaughn you and Agent Morgan are going to be brothers. Here are the files of Agents Morgan." Devlin said handing out the folders with the information about Agents Morgan. The six of you will meet here tomorrow afternoon at two, and we'll further discuss the mission, and travel plans."  
  
The four of them went to Vaughn's office to discuss their plans. Vaughn sat at his desk reading Jason's file. "So the three of you can meet me at my place. And we can hang out with my roommate Francie and my friend Will." Syd said.  
  
Stephanie bit back a smile. "That's not going to work. Syd you and Michael are married, that means you live together. You should probably move into his place for a while. Since he lives alone, you do live alone right Michael?" Steph asked, pretending not to be thoroughly excited at this excellent turn of events. Her husband nudged her leg a little less than gently under the table, and she sent him a glare back.  
  
"Yeah I do. We can move you in tonight Syd. The four of us can move you in and then you two can hang around for dinner, and we can watch a hockey game or something." Vaughn said.  
  
"Sounds great, the four of us can leave here together and get started."  
  
Steph and Johnny turned to leave. "Oh wait." Steph said, turning back to the other pair of agents. "You guys are going to need rings."  
  
"Ok." Vaughn said making a mental note.  
  
After Steph and Johnny were gone, Vaughn and Syd sat reading the files of Agents Morgan. "Great we're working with the bad guy gone good." Vaughn said, scowling down at the file in his hands.  
  
"What? You don't believe in redemption?" Syd asked with a smirk.  
  
"He worked for the mob before he went to the WSB, as a common street thug. And he's brain damaged."  
  
"There's that brilliant open mind," Syd teased, grinning at him.  
  
"Watch it Syd." He said warningly.  
  
"Vaughn." She said, schooling her face to be completely void of the previous mirth. "This is your brother you're talking about." She said with a straight face.  
  
"I can't believe you're making me brothers with that brain damaged bad ass," he snapped.  
  
"Me? Devlin and WSB Director Frisco Jones came up with this, not me. You got a beef take it up with them," Syd said standing and picking up her files. "We're leaving here at five, you got that?" And with that she headed out of the door, leaving Vaughn.  
  
WSB Offices: Paris, France-7 PM  
  
Jason and Robin Morgan walked down one of the WSB, Paris Contingent's many hallways, heading towards the office of Frisco Jones.  
  
"Do you have any idea what this is about?" Jason asked, looking down at his wife.  
  
Robin simply shook her head, she'd been curious when her uncle had called her personally. While she usually had numerous chats with him due to her position, it was rare he was the one contacting her. "No. I think it's about a new mission."  
  
The walked into the waiting area out side Frisco's office and spotted Anna Devane-Scorpio. "Hey sweetie."  
  
"Mom," Robin said, with surprise and happiness. "This is a nice surprise. I thought this was a new assignment for us from Frisco."  
  
"Oh it is," "We're just here for the ride."  
  
"We?" Robin asked.  
  
"Baby?"  
  
"Dad!" Robin exclaimed before throwing herself into her father's arms for a hug.  
  
Robert looked over his daughters head and spotted her husband and partner. He still wasn't exactly sure that Jason was the best think for his daughter. His wife on the other hand seemed to adore the young man. "Jason," Robert acknowledged the other man, with a slightly terse voice and a nod.  
  
"Robert," Jason said, returning the same gesture with a slightly warmer tone. But not by much. All he could think of was that Robert had a urge to interfere in his and Robin's life.  
  
"And oh so civil are we," Anna said with a laugh from the other side of the room as Robin wiggled out of her father's embrace and headed back over to Jason.  
  
"Anna."  
  
"Robert."  
  
"Do we want to come in?" Frisco asked with his eyebrow raised from the doorway. "Or are you two going to harass each other all day?"  
  
"Frisco," Anna said, going over to him with a hug and a smile, before everyone filed in.  
  
Once they were all seated, Robin looked up at her uncle. "So what's the deal?"  
  
"Right to the point. You're like your mother," Frisco stated affectionately. After a brisk look from all sitting at the table, he coughed and continued on with the explanation. "In our constant observation of the DVX, we have found that they have joined up with the KGB for the express purpose of smuggling of arms."  
  
"I thought the DVX was all but dead?" Anna said, and felt slightly comforted when her husband squeezed her hand.  
  
"Someone's revived it Anna, I'm sorry," Frisco said with sympathy, before reminding himself of his task. "Anyway, we have reason to believe that the spot where the arms are leaving is Hawaii, so you two, along with two pairs of agents from the CIA."  
  
"The CIA?" Robin and Jason asked in unison.  
  
"They've been monitoring this as well. Anyway, the six of you are going to head down to Hawaii as married couples on vacation and work to find the connection and take it down."  
  
"When you say go down there with them, is it a meet in Hawaii or a good friends all going on vacation together?"  
  
"There's my girl. Good friends. They're sending in Agents Johnny and Stephanie O'Brien, Agent Bristow and Agent Vaughn," he explained handing out files on the other agents. "The other girls, Agent O'Brien and Agent Bristow, are going to be longtime best friends, who's husbands got close. You two fit in because Jason here is going to be playing Agent Vaughn's brother."  
  
Anna and Robin shared bemused looks from across the table. "Alright. Is that it."  
  
"You'll be flying into LAX tomorrow, leaving here at nine should get you there by about 11 PDT, they'll pick you up there, and you'll be debriefed again by the CIA. The first part of the mission is getting to know each other, inside and out, so you're going to explain about who you are, hit a few hometowns. Get some sleep you're going to need it."  
  
Robert, who had been suspiciously quiet for the meeting finally spoke up. "This is quite a dangerous mission, especially for less experienced agents."  
  
"What Robert is trying to get at is that he doesn't want his baby girl heading off on this mission because he's not sure she and her partner can handle it as well as Robert and I could," Anna explained before turning her measured glance back on her husband. "But we're getting older Robert, and the other two pairs of agents are young, we'd look so out of place. And learn to trust Jason would you? Have a bit of faith. Now come on. We're going to go back to the hotel, we'll see you tomorrow before you leave Luv."  
  
Once everybody left, Robin and Jason were left alone reading the files. "Do you have any idea how straight laced this guy is? Robin, we are not going to get along."  
  
"You don't know that. Besides, he looks like you. Not completely, but just enough. And even if you can't, its not any different from you and your real brother."  
  
"Cute."  
  
Robin shot him a look of innocence. "What?"  
  
Jason simply shook his head. "Well lets hope this goes better than I have a feeling it's going to," he said, standing and holding out a hand for her. "Come on, we've got to go home and pack."  
  
Vaughn's House  
  
Vaughn looked around the mess that had been his living room once upon a time, and more importantly at the creature who was responsible. Sydney was busy flitting around from box to box making sure everything had made it in the move.  
  
"Sydney did we have to move all your stuff to my house?" Vaughn asked.  
  
"You never know what I'm going to need."  
  
Vaughn, Johnny, and Stephanie sat on Vaughn's couch eating pizza, drinking beer, and watching the Kings game. Syd sat on the floor leaning back against Vaughn's legs. "So this is what normal feels like." Syd said.  
  
"Yup." Steph said with a grin. "Isn't it great?"  
  
"Great doesn't even begin to describe it."  
  
"As great as it, we need to start really getting to know each other, so were ready for the mission." Johnny said.  
  
"Leave it to my husband to bring us back to reality."  
  
"Somebody has to, and we both know it isn't going to be you babe."  
  
"Yeah, yeah." Steph said. "Where do we start?"  
  
"Let's start with you Steph." Johnny said.  
  
"Great, most likely to be mistaken for a soap opera character first." Steph said with mock enthusiasm. "Where do I even begin?" She mused aloud. "Ok, I'm thirty, I was born in Florida. My biological father is the one and only Harlan Barrett. My Mom Beverly was a maid at his mansion, they had an affair, and here I am. When I was six, my Mom and I moved to Bloomington, Indiana. Two years after that she met and married the man, who I consider my father, his name is Mark Anderson. My Mom runs a daycare out of our house, and my Dad teaches High School Chemistry and Physics, he also coaches girls varsity basketball. I have two sisters, Julia and Brenda, and a brother Alexander. We are Harlan Barrett's children; all of us have different mothers. I went to Stanford on a basketball scholarship, and when I was a senior, I won the Wade Trophy. Right after college, I started training for the CIA. Johnny and I became partners, and we started dating, soon after that, we said screw protocol and got married. Devlin tried separating us, but apparently, I can be a pain in the ass because I went through three partners in three months. Eventually they put Johnny and I back together, I suspect because he is the only one who is willing to deal with me." She stopped. "Still with me?"  
  
"Yeah." Syd and Vaughn replied.  
  
"Tell them about your siblings."  
  
"My sister Brenda and I are the same age, and we are very close. Her name is Brenda Barrett Corrinthos."  
  
"The international supermodel?" Sydney asked her eyes wide.  
  
"Yeah. She lives in Port Charles, New York with her husband Sonny. This will work out for us, because Jason and Robin are from Port Charles too. Umm, anyway, Sonny he's, well, he's in the mob."  
  
"Babe he isn't in the mob, he is the mob," Johnny corrected.  
  
"Details, details." She said with a wave of her hand. "He loves my sister and he treats her right. "He makes one wrong move where she is concerned and he's dead. He knows that. He won't mess with me, because he is slightly afraid of me."  
  
"He's more then slightly afraid of her. He knows she can kick his ass without breaking a sweat."  
  
"My sister Julia and I aren't close at all." Steph said jumping back into her life story. "She didn't even come to our wedding. But I am close to my little brother Zander. He lives with Brenda and Sonny, and he has a girlfriend Lacey Smythe who I haven't met yet." Steph said with a gleam in her eye. "I don't really know what else to say about my life. I'll add more if I remember anything else. Johnny you go next, your life is so much simpler then mine."  
  
"My parents were Irish immigrants who settled on the south side Boston. They own a pub, my mom teaches elementary school. My parents and I aren't real close anymore, they didn't agree with my decision to join the CIA. I mean we love each other, but our relationship is strained. I have a younger brother Danny, I love that kid. He is a junior at Boston College, and he hates it, but the folks want him to be there. Want him to have a good safe job. My sister Angela is twenty-seven, she went to Boston College as well, and has a degree in journalism; she does the sports on the six o'clock news. She loves being a female sportscaster. She played field hockey. My sister Eileen is the baby and has thrown herself into Tufts University pre med. The girl works to hard some days, and at 19 is more excitable then most people I know. We all dote on her. And me, I went to Michigan on a football scholarship, I played Quarterback. A torn ACL ended my football days. I joined the CIA right around the same time Steph did." He said taking her hand.  
  
"I went to Michigan too, I played hockey though. I loved going to the Big House for football games too." Vaughn said. "We were probably there at the same time. I bet if I really thought about it I could remember you."  
  
"How about the success Tom Brady is having?" Johnny asked. "Have you been back recently?"  
  
"Brady is awesome. You must love his success even more, because he is Pat. It's probably been five years since I've been back."  
  
"New England winning the Super Bowl was awesome," Johnny said with a smile, thinking of the gigantic party he'd gotten time off to go to in his father's gigantic pub. "Its been about five years for me too."  
  
Stephanie and Sydney exchanged amused glances. "Boys, you're getting off topic." Sydney said laughing.  
  
"Right." Vaughn said laughing. "I was born in France. My Mom was French and my Dad William was American, he was a CIA agent, he was killed in the line of duty. I love hockey, the Kings are my team. I joined the CIA to feel closer to my Dad. I was Sydney's handler, that's how we met."  
  
"He was my handler because I joined the CIA after finding out that SD6 wasn't part of the CIA," Sydney explained, remembering those days all too vividly. "SD6 killed my first fiancé Danny, and that's how I learned they weren't what they said they were. My Dad Jack was also a double agent. I recently learned my Dad programmed me to be a spy. I also recently learned my Mother who I thought died in a car crash is really alive and well. She faked her own death, because she was a spy and an assassin for KBG. She killed Vaughn's father." Syd felt Vaughn grab her hand and give it a gentle reassuring squeeze. An action that did not go unnoticed by Johnny and Steph.  
  
Steph looked at her watch. "That's enough for tonight." She said with a small smile. "Its getting late, and Johnny and I need to get home. So we'll go to the office as usual tomorrow, and then leave together to meet Jason and Robin, and then go back to the office for our meeting with Devlin."  
  
Hugs and handshakes were exchanged, and then Steph and Johnny left.  
  
"Ooh they're way too easy," Stephanie whispered to Johnny as they headed down the steps and towards the car.  
  
When they were gone Sydney and Vaughn looked at each other awkwardly not knowing what do now that they were alone. They had never really talked about the kiss since it happened. "Well, I guess we should probably go to bed." Vaughn said. Sydney looked at him with her eyebrows raised, and a blush creeping onto her cheeks. "I have a guest room." Vaughn stammered.  
  
"Yeah, ok, bedtime." Syd said the full impact of their situation hitting her.  
  
They looked at each other nervously for a few minutes before Sydney said, "Well, goodnight."  
  
"Yeah. Um, you're bedroom is in there. The bathroom is right down the hall." He turned back to her and found she wasn't paying attention to him, but struggling with three of her huge suitcases. "You need help with that?"  
  
"Yeah thanks."  
  
Vaughn went and took two suitcases from her and lead her back to the bedroom. He couldn't help but wonder why she needed to have all this stuff with her now when she never brought this much stuff on her normal missions. And it wasn't like she was going to be here for that long.  
  
He placed the two bags by the dresser as Syd threw the one she had on the bed. They stood there staring at one another for a little longer.  
  
"Um, the bathroom's just down the hall," Vaughn said rather awkwardly.  
  
Syd just looked at him like he was crazy. "Ok. Goodnight." Syd had put just enough accent on the word goodnight, that hopefully Vaughn would get the point that she wanted to change.  
  
"Goodnight," Vaughn said, but didn't move.  
  
They stood there for a few more minutes. "That does generally mean you leave. I'm going to change," she explained further.  
  
Vaughn got a sudden image of what Sydney would look like naked. He swallowed with difficulty. "Oh.okay. I'll see you in the morning."  
  
"Alright." 


	2. Ch 2

Second chapter in two days. Carrie and I are rolling. We absolutely adore this story. For those of you who liked the length of the second one, this one's longer. I don't think this story does short. Just as a tiny note, Francie is real Francie, not fake Francie. Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed, they mean everything. We loved every last one. Please read and review.  
  
Laura&Carrie  
  
Chapter 2  
  
Vaughn's House: LA-7:00AM  
  
Michael Vaughn rolled out of bed and walked towards his bathroom. He needed a shower and then coffee and then he could go to the office and deal with Syd and  
  
their newest mission and pray that no one nearly got killed. Especially Syd.  
  
He pushed the door open and heard a scream. He looked up to see Sydney Bristow completely naked in his bathroom. It was like a dream, but it wasn't. He stood there trying to figure out why the hell Sydney would be standing there, naked. Not just naked, but  
  
wet. She glistened in the buzzing florescent lights that surrounded the mirror. He felt the want and need begin to build, along with his arousal.  
  
Then the memories of moving in Sydney last night came back to him suddenly. The second that Sydney scrambled for her towel, which had fallen away when she had seen Vaughn enter, Vaughn quickly averted his eyes to the ground. "Damn it Vaughn! I'm not finished. Get out!"  
  
"I. I'm sorry," he mumbled quickly, before closing the door and fumbling down the hallway. Damn she was hot. Her body was. Perfect. The only word that would ever classify a wed, naked Sydney Bristow was perfect. He'd dreamed of this. Well not this exactly, but Sydney in various stages of undress anywhere in his home was part of a dream.  
  
Vaughn sat down at the table and dropped his head in his hands, and tried to picture anything other than the image that was burned on his retinas and making him more and more aroused by the minute. A mission, a mission should do it. Missions involved Sydney, occasionally in various stages of undress. 'Vaughn!' he yelled at himself mentally.  
  
Sark. 'Eww, eww Sark.' Luckily that was enough, and Vaughn got up to make coffee, he had a feeling he was going to need it. He wandered back out towards the living room, where obvious signs of his agent, partner and current roommate, not to mention the object of his affections, had moved into his place.  
  
He didn't even hear her pad up behind him. "You know, you could actually be considerate of other people and knock. You're not the only one who lives here," Sydney told him as she plopped down on the couch.  
  
"I have lived alone for years Syd," he practically snapped, frustrated in more ways than one. "And usually when there's a naked woman in my bathroom she doesn't mind me walking in."  
  
Syd kept a straight face even though the line nearly killed her. "Do you have coffee?" she asked, seemingly unaffected.  
  
"I'm making some."  
  
"Well the bathroom's all yours," Syd told him as she stood up and headed for the kitchen.  
  
"Did you leave any hot water?" Vaughn called after her.  
  
Syd stopped and looked at him over his shoulder with that faux innocent look of hers. "You should hope so," she said smugly before heading into the kitchen.  
  
All Vaughn prayed was that he wouldn't be the one to do Sydney in today.  
  
CIA Offices: LA-9:30 AM  
  
Stephanie started working with the punching back that she had artfully placed in her and her husbands office. Due to the fact that they only had the one desk in there it left a lot of room. She enjoyed having something to work her emotions out on, and Johnny liked to tease her that it cost less than having to redo the room once a month.  
  
"Is it dead yet?" Johnny asked, coming into the room and laying the files he had in hand on his desk.  
  
"Shut up," Steph said good naturedly as she stopped and turned to look at her husband. She walked over to him and kissed him before sagging against him.  
  
Johnny lifted a hand and stroked her hair. "What is it now?"  
  
"Tension from the mission," she murmured without moving. "This is a big one."  
  
"I know. You're going to pull it off beautifully though."  
  
Stephanie lifted her head and looked up at her husband with one eyebrow carefully raised. "It's a team effort. A rather large team effort."  
  
"Do we fail?" he asked, raising his own eyebrow to match hers.  
  
"No," Steph conceded before she snuggled back into Johnny. "Besides, I'm working on a smaller mission."  
  
Johnny couldn't help the smirk. His wife's biggest weakness was seeing other couples happy. "Ah yes, spreading happiness one couple at a time."  
  
"Hey, we can't have everything, but we can have love."  
  
"You're a hopeless romantic at heart."  
  
"So sue me," she said before her husband's mouth captured her own.  
  
"Hey. Oh."  
  
"Vaughn has knocking issues," Sydney said with a smirk from behind him.  
  
Vaughn whirled around and glared at Syd. "The door was open."  
  
"And that's the perfect excuse."  
  
"Did you two remember to get rings?" Stephanie asked, trying to head off a fight before it started.  
  
"No," Sydney answered.  
  
At the same time Vaughn said, "Yeah."  
  
"Yeah? When did you get rings?" Sydney asked him curiously. She hadn't seen him get any rings.  
  
"When you disappeared for a little while," Vaughn said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out two boxes. He opened the first one and pulled out an extravagant engagement ring, and then took a band with diamonds in it. "Here." He took her hand and slipped  
  
the rings over her finger.  
  
"They're beautiful," Sydney breathed, as she studied them. "And they fit."  
  
"Yeah well," Vaughn simply shrugged as he slipped his own band on.  
  
Steph looked at the rings on Sydney's hand. "You have good taste in jewelry Michael." She said.  
  
"Thanks." He said. He looked around the room, "Why is there only one desk in here, don't you two share this office?" He asked hoping to change the subject from the rings.  
  
"Ah, well, there used to be two desks in here, but Steph never used hers. So we got rid of it in favor of the punching bag and the couch."  
  
"Why the punching bag?" Sydney asked.  
  
"I got tired of having to pay to have the office redone every time she threw a tempter tantrum. It gets expensive."  
  
"You had to pay one time Johnny, one time."  
  
"Alright. I think it's about time we headed out," Johnny said looking at his watch.  
  
"Yes lets. Someone has family to meet," Sydney teased as they headed out the door.  
  
LAX-10:45 AM  
  
Sydney, Vaughn Johnny and Stephanie stood in LAX waiting for flight 250 from JFK to land. The difference between the two couples was evident. Johnny's arm was casually slung around his wife and she leaned into him. They looked like a real married  
  
couple.  
  
Sydney and Vaughn on the other hand stood about a foot apart, sending each other nervous glances. The few incidents that had passed between them that morning  
  
had made them both nervous.  
  
"Hey Steph, you want to help me find the bathroom," Sydney asked, in a desperate attempt to get away from the awkward situation she was in.  
  
"Sure."  
  
"I don't know how we're going to pull this off," Syd said once they were well out of earshot.  
  
"What do you mean? What happened?"  
  
Syd blushed and looked down. "This morning he sort of walked in on me."  
  
Stephanie just looked at Sydney for a few moments before she burst out laughing. "It's not funny!" Syd exclaimed.  
  
Stephanie managed to find a sympathetic glance in her arsenal. "Johnny did the same thing the first time we were forced to share a space for a mission. Boys that  
  
live alone have no clue what sharing is."  
  
"I just. If he was going to see me naked, I didn't want  
  
it to be like that."  
  
"I know."  
  
Back in the waiting area Vaughn tried to think of something to say before he just blurted out the first thing on his mind. "I'm worrying that I'm going to kill her."  
  
"Living with a woman isn't easy, especially if it's against either of your will. Or if you want her and she doesn't know," Johnny said suggestively, wondering how on the money his wife was.  
  
"She's just taking over everything."  
  
"I don't want to know do I?"  
  
"No."  
  
"So what are you two chatting about?" Sydney asked as she and Stephanie rejoined the guys.  
  
Vaughn looked down at her with a gleam in his eyes. "You."  
  
"And how in love we are?" Syd asked, threading her arms around one of Vaughn's.  
  
"Yes," Vaughn said, figuring all of the spectators in the airport were expecting a kiss. They were married after all. He could get away with it.  
  
All Syd knew was that Vaughn's face was inches away from her own. She felt her body tense up slightly with anticipation as his hand came to cup her face.  
  
And then... "Hello," she said rather tersely into her cell phone to stop the shrill ringing.  
  
"Syd, thank god," Francie's relief filled voice carried over the phone as Syd pushed away from Vaughn and headed into a corner. "We nearly had a heart attack when we found your stuff missing."  
  
"Hey Francie," Syd said with a small laugh. The truth was she was upset with herself. She should have known that Francie would have been worried upon getting hometo find her roommate's stuff gone. And we, meant Will.  
  
"Where did all of your stuff go? Where are you Syd?" Francie questioned.  
  
Syd could hear the worry in her friend's voice. Now came the choice, tell Francie, guess what I'm married or it's a long story I'll tell you later. "Surprise! Vaughn and I got married."  
  
"Married?" Francie asked in a shocked voice.  
  
"Married?" Will's voice came through the background and she knew that as of this moment he was in a panic. "She's married! Damn it Francie; give me the phone! You're married," he exclaimed when he had safely gotten the phone from Francie. "To who?"  
  
They were going to find out sooner or later. "Vaughn."  
  
"Vaughn?" Will exclaimed, and she knew that hadn't exactly been the answer Will was looking for. But she was married to Vaughn. "You're married to the man Syd, you better be able to use the man's first name."  
  
"Michael and I got married this weekend," she said correcting herself, making a mental note to begin calling Vaughn by his first name most of the time. "We  
  
have been fighting our feelings forever, and now with SD-6 out of the way, we decided to just jump right in."  
  
Well it was partially true. She rationalized to herself.  
  
"Does your father know?" Will asked sternly.  
  
"No! We need to tell him. So please, let us."  
  
"Will! Give me--" There was clearly another struggle over the phone and when it was over Francie's voice came over the phone, and Sydney had a feeling Will was getting death glares. "Syd, don't listen to him, congratulations. I mean you're happy. You are happy aren't you?"  
  
"Yes. Very," Syd said with a smile as she wondered what it would really be like to be Mrs. Michael Vaughn. It had potential to be quite wonderful.  
  
"Everything ok?" Vaughn said, coming up behind her and laying a hand on her shoulder.  
  
"Yeah Michael, everything's fine," Syd said, looking up at him over her shoulder.  
  
"Give him the phone I want to talk to him too," Francie told Syd.  
  
Syd covered the small holes at the bottom of the phone. "Here. They want to talk to you."  
  
"Hello?" Vaughn said as he picked up the phone.  
  
"Well congratulations. You got yourself one heck of a wife."  
  
"That I do."  
  
"Glad to hear that. You're happy?"  
  
"Extremely," he said staring at Syd, and for a moment, he let himself believe that she was his wife.  
  
Vaughn heard a shuffle and then Will's voice carried through the phone. "You better take care of her, or I'm going to kill you and I don't care if you're CIA."  
  
"I won't hurt her I promise."  
  
"You can't promise those things."  
  
"Look--" Vaughn said getting pissed off.  
  
"Delta Flight 250 from JFK international has landed. Passengers will be arriving shortly."  
  
"Will," Sydney said into the phone. "Will we've got to go."  
  
"Why are you at the airport? You're not going on your honeymoon right now are you?" he asked rather panicked.  
  
"You can't Syd. I wanted you two to come to the restaurant for a celebratory dinner," Francie's voice came through know, and Syd could practically see them  
  
with both of their heads pressed to the receiver.  
  
"We're just picking up Michael's brother and sister-in-law," Syd explained.  
  
"Oh. Bring them as well."  
  
Syd felt guilty because she knew she couldn't leave out Johnny and Steph. "And a very old friend of mine who just recently moved here, and her husband."  
  
"Well at least it's even."  
  
"You're the best Francie," Syd exclaimed, knowing that she'd just gotten a yes.  
  
"I know. We're going to have to get you married another time so I can be there."  
  
"Alright. I've really got to go."  
  
"Alright."  
  
They stood down by the baggage claim waiting for the pair of agents to arrive. They first spotted them as they came down the escalator. Their height difference was interesting, and hadn't translated in Sydney's mind from paper to reality. Agent Robin Morgan was  
  
definitely a tiny woman, barely coming up to her husband's shoulder.  
  
But she would stick them next to each other. Syd thought to herself, knowing that it was the height difference between him and Robin that made Jason Morgan seem so tall. But nonetheless, they were a very attractive couple, the pixie like woman and the impressive man.  
  
Sydney turned to Vaughn as the Morgan's quickly collected their bags. "Vaughn look there's your brother go give him a hug," she teased gleefully.  
  
Vaughn simply sent her a disbelieving look. "Look at him he's a punk."  
  
Sydney looked back and rolled her eyes. "It's just a leather jacket, and I've seen you wear a leather jacket."  
  
"Robin look at him, we are never going to get along. He looks like a Quartermaine."  
  
"Well dear you are a Quartermaine by blood."  
  
"I'm going to forget you said that."  
  
And with that they were in front of the other couples.  
  
"Jason," Vaughn acquiesced coldly with a nod.  
  
"Michael," Jason said repeating the action.  
  
"It's been a long time," Sydney said, hugging Jason first, surprising him a bit, before moving on to Robin.  
  
"It's so good to see you again," Robin told Syd, playing her part honestly and wonderfully. "Both of you," she said, as she went over and gave Vaughn a hug befitting a brother-in-law.  
  
"Same here," Vaughn said, releasing the small woman, and feeling a small surge of triumph as he saw the anger in her husbands eyes  
  
"Oh and these are my friends. Johnny and Stephanie O'Brien. Johnny, Steph, this is Michael's brother Jason and his wife Robin. Steph is one of my very  
  
best friends from school."  
  
"We actually know of each other. Stephanie have you heard from Brenda lately?"  
  
"My sister Brenda and Robin are best friends. Its really nice to finally meet you and Jason."  
  
"Well are we ready to go."  
  
"Did you get everything?" Robin asked, looking up at her husband.  
  
"Yup."  
  
"The small one's his," Robin said looking from the bags back to the other two girls. "How a man can travel on a duffle that size I'll never know."  
  
"And then the complain about what we bring," Syd responded, thinking of the fuss Vaughn had made the other night about all of her stuff.  
  
"So, how are you?" Robin asked Syd, as if they had known each other for years.  
  
"I'm doing alright. Work's changing, but I think it's for the best,"  
  
"That's good. I'm just glad to be back stateside."  
  
"Mon fr(re est un connard," Vaughn muttered as he walked up to his 'wife' and placed an arm around her shoulders.  
  
"Merci beaucoup," Jason said coldly in perfect French. "Je pense le m(me que toi."  
  
"You've got to love how they're fluent in French," Robin said, turning to look at Syd. "It's such a beautiful language. We've been very happy living in France for the past three years."  
  
"You've been in Paris right?" Syd asked.  
  
"I love Paris," Steph said from the background.  
  
"Michael's and my visits to France have been quite short."  
  
"One of these times you'll have to stay with us," Robin said, and Jason and Vaughn shared a worried glance. "It would be wonderful. Shopping is to die for."  
  
"It must be."  
  
"Shoes," Steph piped up. "I went shoe crazy there once."  
  
"In. Everybody in," Vaughn said as they reached the cars that the CIA had sent over.  
  
"Are you feeling alright sweetie?" Syd asked, looking up at him with innocent eyes that he didn't by for a minute.  
  
"I'm fine," Vaughn said tersely before climbing into the car after her.  
  
"Alright," Sydney said dubiously as the car pulled away from the curb.  
  
  
  
Twenty minutes later the cars pulled up in front of the Beverly Regent Hotel.  
  
"You guys go back to the offices," Robin said when they all got out. "We'll be fine."  
  
"You know Michael, do you think it's best leaving your brother at a hotel?" Sydney asked Vaughn.  
  
"Yes," Jason and Vaughn said at once.  
  
"Go on. We'll be hear at two."  
  
The moment Jason and Robin were in their room, Jason picked up one of the glasses and filled it with water. He came back to his wife who was sitting on the bed.  
  
"Thanks," Robin said as she took the glass. She looked between it and her purse. "Hold it for just another moment."  
  
"Sure," Jason said, watching her closely as she rummaged around in her purse and pulled out one of the many small containers with pills.  
  
Jason handed her the glass of water and sat down next to her as she swallowed all of the pills. "Blech," Robin said with a shudder, leaning into him. "I don't like that one."  
  
It pulled at Jasons heart every time he was reminded of Robin's illness. "I know," he murmured as he pressed his lips to the top of her head.  
  
Robin simply sighed and snuggled closer. "Tired?"  
  
"Only slightly."  
  
"Take a nap," Jason said, standing. "I have a few errands I want to run."  
  
Robin shook her head and stood as well. "I probably shouldn't nap. It will mess me up more."  
  
"Alright. I'll be back in a bit," Jason said, leaning down to give her a kiss before he left.  
  
"And I'll begin unpacking."  
  
CIA Offices-2:00pm  
  
The six agents were sitting in the conference room waiting for Devlin to join them and brief them. "So I was thinking we should definitely go back to Port Charles, since Robin and Jason are both from there, and my brother and sister live there." Steph said. "I'm sure my sister will want to have dinner with us." Steph added.  
  
"Stephanie." Johnny started.  
  
"She's my sister, and I love her, and because of our job we've missed every single one of her weddings, the least we can do is have dinner with her. I thought you liked my sister." Steph said, feeling slightly hurt.  
  
"I love you sister, hate her choice of life partners. Besides Steph three out of her four weddings either weren't legal or someone forgot to show up."  
  
Stephanie simply gave him a cold glare instead of "Jonathon, you can sleep on the couch for that comment."  
  
Their bickering was interrupted by the sound of Devlin clearing his throat. "Are we ready to begin?"  
  
They all turned at the sound of his voice. The CIA agents took in the casually dressed man standing with Devlin. "Uncle Frisco." Robin exclaimed jumping up and flying into her Uncle's open arms. "You didn't mention you were coming to LA."  
  
"I wanted to surprise you beautiful."  
  
"I did too." Anna Devane-Scorpio said from the doorway. "Don't worry I left your Dad at the hotel Luv."  
  
"How'd you manage that?" Jason asked.  
  
"You didn't tie him up, did you?" Robin asked seriously. She'd heard the story more times than she could count, and knew her mother would do it again.  
  
"Nah, I left him with Uncle Sean and Tiffany."  
  
"What is this a family operation?" Vaughn whispered in Sydney's ear.  
  
"Shh." She hissed back at him.  
  
"The WSB director is wearing khaki shorts and a polo shirt." Vaughn said disbelievingly.  
  
"Michael." She whispered warningly in his ear.  
  
"Miss. Bristow." Anna said extending her hand to Sydney. "I read your file, and I am so impressed with your work, it is no easy task being a double agent. You did a marvelous job."  
  
"I can't believe the one and only Anna Devane is shaking my hand and complimenting my work." Sydney thought. To Anna she said. "Thank you very much, that is a high compliment coming from you."  
  
"Lets get started, shall we?" Devlin said getting tired of the small talk.  
  
"The purpose of your mission," Frisco started. "Is really quite simple, find the connection and bring it down."  
  
"That's it?" Steph asked, she had been expecting a book of details and instructions.  
  
"You're all smart agents, I'm sure Director Devlin and I don't have to spell out every detail for you. Plus anything we can tell you is already in the case files we gave you, so repeat ourselves."  
  
Devlin gave Frisco a sharp look. "You can meet with the tech guys to get all the tools your going to need. Remember the seriousness of this mission, this not just a paid vacation where you happen to take down the criminals. Do not let the location of this mission distract you."  
  
"I have limited experience with KBG, I do know they have one of the best trained assassins in the world. I am however quite well versed where DVX is concerned. Back in the day, they were extremely powerful. They are ruthless, your lives mean absolutely nothing to them, and they will not hesitate to take care of you using any means necessary. The six of you are six of the best and brightest agents in the world obviously, and I have all the faith in the world in you and your abilities, but please be careful I want to see all six of you return home." Anna said.  
  
After the meeting, they dispersed into the hallway. "Robin." Sydney said. "Michael and I will pick you and Jason up at six thirty, we are having dinner with Steph and Johnny and a couple friends of mine."  
  
"That sounds great, we'll see you then." Robin said enthusiastically.  
  
"Robin what did you just agree to?" Jason asked her when Sydney walked away.  
  
"Dinner at seven. Michael and Sydney will be at our hotel at six thirty." She said stretching up to kiss him on the cheek. She walked away to talk to her Mom and her Uncle before Jason could say anything.  
  
Restaurant-7:10  
  
"I wonder where Syd and Michael are?" Francie mused. "They didn't mention being late, did they mention anything to you?"  
  
"No." Johnny said.  
  
"Either Sydney and Michael decided what the hell lets ravage each other, or Michael and Jason are currently killing each other." Stephanie whispered in Johnny's ear.  
  
"I don't really want either of those visuals in my head."  
  
"Sorry." She said kissing him.  
  
"There they are." Will said suddenly. "And all four of them look pissed."  
  
"Oh boy." Steph whispered. "Hey guys." She said cautiously when they approached. "What's going on?"  
  
"How their Mother dealt with them I'll never know. You would think they were ten the way they acted." Sydney said angrily.  
  
"Well Jason is just turning seven." Vaughn muttered.  
  
"Enough." Sydney said. "I just want to enjoy the evening with my husband and my friends and family, is that too much to ask from you."  
  
"No, Jason and I can call a truce for now. Right Jason?" Michael asked, wrapping his arms protectively around Sydney. "I'm sorry." He said just loud enough for her to hear.  
  
"Right." Jason said after receiving an elbow to the midsection from Robin.  
  
"So sit down." Francie said. "Details Syd, I want details. Let me see the ring." Francie started excitedly.  
  
The four of them sat down, and somehow Jason and Michael ended up sitting next to each other. "You boys going to be able to handle that? Or do you need to be separated?" Stephanie asked with an amused smile.  
  
"We're fine." Jason and Vaughn said at the same time.  
  
"Syd come on, don't leave us hanging." Francie said impatiently.  
  
"Ok, there isn't really much to say. Vau-- Michael asked me to marry him, and I said yes. We decided to just go ahead and do it now, because we didn't want to wait any longer to be together." Sydney said resting her hand on top of Vaughn's.  
  
"We've been fighting the love that we share for each other for over a year now. I didn't want to go another day without Sydney as my wife."  
  
"I can't believe you kept the fact that you were in love for over a year from me," Francie said.  
  
"You know I had to." Sydney said.  
  
"I know, but seriously you guys are going to have to have another wedding so all of your friends and family can be present."  
  
"Well." Sydney said. "Michael and are leaving for our honeymoon, we'll discuss it when we get back," Sydney said somewhat sadly, knowing that when she got back, she would have to explain another lie to her friends.  
  
Vaughn immediately caught the change in her demeanor. "Can you excuse the two of us for a minute," Vaughn asked grabbing Sydney's hand and leading her away from the table. "What's the matter?" He asked gently.  
  
"I was just thinking that when we get back I'm going to have to explain another huge lie to them. I mean Francie is so excited about us."  
  
Vaughn put his hands on her face. "I'm sorry."  
  
She grabbed his wrists. "Its not your fault," she said with a small smile.  
  
He looked over her head to see the entire table watching them expectantly. He leaned down and brushed his lips across hers gently. "Lets go back to the table." He whispered to her.  
  
She just shook her head and allowed Vaughn to lead her back to the table.  
  
"You must be in love," Francie said with a smile. "You've got that goofy head over heels in love grin on your face, and that glazed I'm ecstatically happy look in your eyes."  
  
"Of course I'm happy and in love, I married the man of my dreams."  
  
"So when do you leave on your honeymoon?" Will asked.  
  
"Well, we are leaving tomorrow evening to go visit Steph's family. After that we are going to Port Charles to visit Robin's family, and Michael and Jason's family live there as well."  
  
"So does my sister." Steph added.  
  
"Then we are going to Hawaii." Sydney finished.  
  
"Sounds like you guys are going to have the time of your lives."  
  
"We are." Vaughn said with a smile.  
  
Beverly Reagent Hotel-10:00  
  
"Alright, now I'm exhausted," Robin said with a small laugh as she and Jason headed towards the hotel.  
  
Jason stopped and looked down at her. "Just one thing first."  
  
She knew those eyes, those twinkling eyes that wanted something, but it had to do with her. She wanted to know what it was, but she wanted the bed in the hotel as well. "What?"  
  
"Come on," Jason said as he began to steer her towards the exclusive parking garage.  
  
Robin kept giving him crazy looks until the elevator they were in got to the top, and he covered her eyes with his hands. "Jason, what has gotten into you."  
  
Jason walked with her for a few paces and then stopped. He lifted his hands and robin saw a motorcycle, but not just any motorcycle. It was Jason's first and prize motorcycle, which he had mysteriously left behind when he had gone to her in Paris. She now looked up at him with wide eyes.  
  
Jason simply shrugged. "I figured as long as we're in the states."  
  
"Oh!" She exclaimed, launching herself into is arms. Laughingly she pulled back. "You do know we're not riding this thing cross country."  
  
"I have money."  
  
Robin took that simple statement to mean he was going to fly it to all of their different stops. "I'm well aware of that fact."  
  
"And then we can have it shipped to Paris when we're done," he said running his hand down her hair.  
  
Robin turned back to look at the bike. She thought of the small collection they had acquired as a couple. This one was bigger than all that. "Oh Jason, I missed this bike. I mean I love ours but this one, this one started it."  
  
"I know."  
  
"I'm ready for bed now."  
  
"Me too, but I don't intend to sleep," Jason said swinging her up into his arms.  
  
"Jason," Robin admonished without the least bit of anger in her voice.  
  
"Do you want to sleep right now?" he asked her rasing an eyebrow.  
  
"I could get into something else."  
  
"Good."  
  
Johnny and Steph's house-10:10  
  
"Well." She said plopping down on the couch. "That was interesting."  
  
"It was." He said sitting down next to her. "I think you're right about Sydney and Michael though. They definitely have something going on, they are currently in denial."  
  
"Hawaii should be good for them." She looked at her watch. "Night honey." She kissed him on the mouth and got up. She reached behind him and pulled the blanket off the back of the couch. "Here you go." She said handing it to him.  
  
"What's this for?" He asked forgetting about their conversation from earlier.  
  
"You're crashing on the couch tonight remember."  
  
"Stephanie, you weren't serious about that, were you?"  
  
"Of course I was you big baby don't whine, its unattractive on you."  
  
"Steph." He said pulling her down onto his lap. "We both know how you hate to sleep alone." He said kissing her neck.  
  
"Are you trying to seduce me into letting you come upstairs?" She asked.  
  
"Is it working?" He asked pushing her sweater off her shoulders and moving the strap of her tank top to the side so he could kiss her shoulder.  
  
"Maybe just a little." She replied.  
  
"Only a little." He said with a smirk, as he continued his assault.  
  
"Ok, ok, its working. Can we go upstairs now?"  
  
He laughed, "Anything you say." He carried her up the stairs and to their bedroom  
  
Vaughn's House-9:20  
  
"Well that went well," Vaughn muttered, throwing his coat over a chair.  
  
Sydney whirled on him, her eyes bright and hot. "No thanks to you."  
  
Vaughn gave up a weary sigh. "Syd, I tried."  
  
"No, no you didn't. He's supposed to be your brother, and you're both supposed to be well over the age of ten."  
  
"He's not even--"  
  
"DON'T Michael Christophe Vaughn!" she yelled at him. The sniping had continued over dinner. "Don't even think about going there right now."  
  
"You're pissed."  
  
"If you blow this mission because no one believes that you two are brothers I'm blaming it on you," she told him as she angrily paced around the room.  
  
"We won't blow it," He told her, going over to her and taking her by the shoulders. "You know that. I'm sorry I upset you."  
  
She let out a sigh. "Just try harder next time."  
  
Vaughn stroked a hand down her face. "Alright."  
  
He was leaning in towards her, Syd could see it and feel it. She simply ducked out from underneath his arm and headed backwards towards her room. "Anyways, I'm exhausted. Time for bed. Night Michael."  
  
"Night Syd." 


	3. Ch 3

I know, we took soo long, comparatively. I was slow as a writer. This story doesn't do short, I've mentioned that before I'll mention it again. Carrie and I are madly in love with this story, it's fun and exciting and enjoyable, and it takes up half of our conversations. Thank you for the replies, they keep us writing. We literally squeal over them. So leave replies, comments, questions. We enjoy it.  
  
Laura&Carrie  
  
Chapter 3  
  
Vaughn's House-7:30am  
  
Vaughn and Sydney were groggily making their way around the kitchen trying to get breakfast started and more importantly coffee made. "You can have the shower first this morning Michael."  
  
"Thanks." He answered still sleepily.  
  
They continued their motions in silence until a sudden fierce pounding startled them both. "What the hell." Sydney muttered.  
  
"I'll handle it." Vaughn said. He went to answer the door; he was still in his pajamas; boxers and an LA Kings t-shirt. "Hello." He said when he opened the door.  
  
"Just who in the hell do you think you are? What the hell were you thinking? Where is my daughter?" Jack yelled walking threateningly towards Vaughn.  
  
Vaughn walked backwards into his own house. "Syd, can you come here for a minute." He called out worry creeping into his voice.  
  
"I thought you said you could handle whoever it was at the door." Syd said teasingly as she walked into the living room. "Dad." She said trying to hide her shock.  
  
Jack took in her appearance; she was wearing shorts, a white tank top and a robe. "Sydney, what in the world has gotten into you, what possessed you to do something this stupid."  
  
Stupid, her Dad thought marrying Michael was stupid, and that stung Sydney even though this was for a mission, that comment still hurt. She suddenly felt very protective of Vaughn and their 'marriage.' "Stupid? I married Michael, I don't think that's stupid." She said quietly, linking her arm through Vaughn's. "SD-6 is gone, what's the big deal? And how on earth did you find out."  
  
"The big deal is he is your handler, and Will told me, we both agree this is a mistake."  
  
"Was my handler. And neither you or Will have any say in this. I am a grown woman, capable of making my own decisions." She said fighting back tears, she could not and would not cry. "Why is everyone so against Vaughn, the most wonderful guy I have ever met." She wondered silently.  
  
"The two of you getting married so soon after the destruction of the Alliance indicates that you both violated protocol. Agent Vaughn you really should have known better. Heaven help you when the CIA finds out, heaven help both of you." He said moving threateningly towards Vaughn again.  
  
She slipped her body in front of Vaughn's. "The CIA knows, this was their idea. Its for a damn mission. If you would have asked, instead of threatening Vaughn, we could have told you. We're going to Hawaii to close down a smuggling ring, with Agents O'Brien and Agents Morgan, both sets of agents happen to be married partners who handle emotional attachment just fine." She spat out at him angrily. "You got what you came here for I think you should leave now."  
  
She turned away from him, and went to look at the pictures on Vaughn's mantle. "I'll show myself out, be careful Sydney."  
  
When she heard the door close, she turned to face Vaughn her eyes bright with anger. "Who the hell do we think we are, the better question is who the hell do they think they are?" She started pacing, balling her hands into fists. "The one thing I asked Will not to do, he turns around and does."  
  
"Syd." Vaughn said gently.  
  
She went on with her rant. "Will and I think marrying Vaughn is a mistake. Will and I think. Who gives a damn what the two of them think? I don't, I don't give a damn what either of them think."  
  
"Syd, its ok, they just care and worry about you, that's all."  
  
"They don't have a say. If I want to marry you and you want to marry me, we're going to get married. If I want to fall crazy, head over heels, old fashioned in love with you, I'm going to. I'm not going to ask Will's or my Dad's permission. Why does everyone think you're so bad for me? I don't understand it."  
  
"Syd." He tried once more to get her attention.  
  
"I don't understand. I mean." The full force of Vaughn's lips on hers cut her off.  
  
"Syd." He said his face inches of hers and his voice raspy. "It's ok."  
  
CIA Offices-9:00am  
  
Steph and Johnny were getting last minute CIA business finished before their trip. "You're staring, Johnny."  
  
"You're beautiful."  
  
A small smile played on her lips. "You're biased."  
  
He walked over and gave her a kiss. "I love you, and I've always thought you were beautiful."  
  
"I love you too." She said kissing him again. She sighed when she heard a knock on the door. She pulled away and went to get the door. "Where's Sydney?" She asked when she noticed that Michael came in with Jason and Robin.  
  
"She had something to take care of."  
  
"You look worried." Johnny said.  
  
"We might have to bail her out of jail or something."  
  
"What?" Stephanie asked incredulously. "What is she doing?"  
  
"She went to have a chat with Will."  
  
"Will, lovable best friend Will? Will who holds a torch for the one girl he can never have, but will always wonder what might have been, even when he's old and gray with grandchildren. That Will?" Steph asked.  
  
"Yeah, that Will." Vaughn said with a smile.  
  
"So why is Syd going to kick his ass?" Robin questioned.  
  
"He told Jack that Syd and I got married while he was away, after Syd asked, no told him not too. He also said that her marrying me was a mistake." Vaughn said unmistakable anger creeping into his voice.  
  
Steph bit back a smile. "And this upset Sydney?" Steph asked digging for information.  
  
Johnny noticed what his wife was doing. "Steph, let it go, its not any of our business."  
  
She shot him a look. "Fine, fine. It's dropped, until Sydney gets back, then I'll ask her myself."  
  
Francie's Restaurant-10:00am  
  
She walked in and found that Will had his back to her. She sneaked up behind him and pinned him against the wall, holding his arm tightly behind his back. "Jesus Sydney, what the hell is wrong with you?"  
  
"The better question is what the hell is wrong with you?"  
  
"I have no idea what you are talking about."  
  
"My ass you don't."  
  
"Syd, come on."  
  
She responded by tightening her grip on his arm. "I told you not to tell my Dad about my marrying Michael. I told you Michael and I had to tell him ourselves."  
  
"It slipped."  
  
"I don't believe you. I believe you deliberately let it slip to my Dad that I got married," Sydney said, pressing him further against the wall.  
  
"Why wouldn't you believe me?"  
  
"Because maybe," She said spinning him around so he could see her. "You're jealous."  
  
"I am not jealous of Vaughn," Will stated firmly, his eyes heating up.  
  
"Really, then why would you do something that I asked you to let me handle?" She asked her eyes flashing with anger.  
  
Will threw his hands up in the air and paced the room. "Because I am looking out for you, because I care about you, you're my best friend."  
  
"I don't need or want you to look out for me, if it means you betray my trust."  
  
"You're making a mistake Sydney," Will charged "Marrying Vaughn was a mistake."  
  
"I love Michael Vaughn, he is everything to me. I can't live without him, I don't want too. Marrying him was the best decision of my life." She said tears pricking at the corners of her eyes. She turned away from Will and saw Vaughn standing in the doorway. She walked over to where he was standing, wrapped her arms around his neck, and kissed him on the mouth. "Lets go, meet our friends."  
  
He held Sydney closer to his body. "Are you ok?" He asked concerned all the while sending a cold glare towards Will.  
  
"I'm fine, now that you're here," Syd said, pressing herself close to him and inhaling his scent. She told herself that it was all an act for Will, but she knew that there was a part of this that was from her. "Can we please go?"  
  
"Sure," Vaughn said, leaving one arm wrapped protectively around Sydney's waist. He threw one last glare at Will for making Syd cry, before leading her out of the restaurant and towards his car.  
  
Steph and Johnny's House-10:45  
  
Steph and Sydney were sitting on the couch in the living room, while the guys were outside shooting hoops. "What time are Jason and Robin coming over?" Sydney asked Stephanie.  
  
She looked at her watch, "Around eleven I think."  
  
Syd sighed and got up to look out the window. She watched Michael for a moment, enjoying his form. "I wonder about Michael and Jason. Will anyone believe their siblings?" she asked, turing back to Stephanie and sitting in one of the chairs.  
  
"They're both good agents, when it comes crunch time they'll make it work," Stephanie said, confidently. "How are things with you and Michael?"  
  
"Confusing as ever," Sydney said, closing her eyes and leaning her head back on the  
  
"Johnny and I fought what was between us for awhile." Steph said with a sigh, thinking back five years. It was so long ago, but it seemed like . "I loved him so much, he was really the only person who knew me, in all my glory. The good, the bad, everything. He saw it all. I would be no where without him, I can't picture life without him by my side."  
  
"What about protocol?"  
  
"Protocol is like any other rule, meant to be broken. Besides for regular agents, there is no protocol. I mean relationships are not recommended, but they aren't forbidden either." Steph said with a smile.  
  
"After we took down SD6, Michael and I shared our first real kiss. But that was it, we never brought it up again."  
  
"Why did you go after Will today?"  
  
"He told my Dad that Michael and I were married," Syd said with disgust. "He and my dad think marrying Vaughn is a mistake."  
  
Steph wrinkled her brow. "Vaughn is one of the most decent guys I have ever met. Why did their comments make you so mad, I mean you and Vaughn aren't married. Unless you do love him, and want to marry him someday," she said getting excited. Admitting you were in love was the first step to eternal happiness.  
  
Sydney instantly squirmed in her seat. There was no point in admitting this yet, what would it get her besides trouble. "It's very complicated," she said trying to avoid the subject.  
  
Steph opened her mouth to dig in from another angle when the sound of a motorcycle ripping down the street got their attention.  
  
"Is that a motorcycle?" Steph asked getting up and going to the window.  
  
Sydney got up and followed her. "That's a motorcycle, is that Jason and Robin on a motorcycle?"  
  
Outside the guys were just as shocked to see the motorcycle pull up to the curb. Jason was obviously at the helm, very much without a helmet, and the woman on the back with a helmet, must be Robin.  
  
"A motorcycle?" Vaughn asked raising an eyebrow as Robin took her helmet off.  
  
"Isn't it gorgeous?" Robin asked as she hopped off and put the helmet on the back of the bike. She took a moment just to revel in it's beauty.  
  
"You actually like that thing?" He asked her curiously.  
  
Robin turned and flashed Vaughn for "Love it. We have three more in Paris. We're going to ship this one their when we head for Hawaii."  
  
"Do you buy these things wherever you go for transportation?" Johnny asked curiously.  
  
Jason shook his head as he hopped off the bike. "Took this one out of storage. This is the first one I bought."  
  
"You don't wear a helmet," Vaughn pointed out.  
  
Jason simply glared at Michael. Robin quickly caught the look that passed between them. "Jason doesn't exactly believe in helmets."  
  
"You appear to."  
  
"Yeah, well I'm a doctor and know what it looks like when people have bike incidents. Jason also insists that I wear it. His own safety is another matter," she said, sending a glare her husband's way. "He figures if he lived through one head trauma just fine, he'll make it through another. And no amount or pleading on my part will change it."  
  
"You have lots of these?" Steph asked with interest.  
  
"This is our first of four. We started out together on this one. It's like going home," Robin said wistfully as Jason wrapped an arm around her.  
  
"It looks like fun," Syd said her eyes lighting up.  
  
"Syd," Vaughn said warningly taking her arm. There was one thing he knew he didn't want to see and it was Sydney on the back of that motorcycle.  
  
"What?" Sydney asked curiously, looking up at Vaughn with curious eyes.  
  
"One of us could take you," Robin offered.  
  
"Really?"  
  
"Come on. We have a got a lot to do, lets get started," Vaughn said, hauling Sydney towards the house.  
  
"What is wrong with you?" Syd hissed at him.  
  
"I don't want you on the back of one of those things," he hissed back  
  
"They've both been driving them for a long time," Sydney said loud enough for everyone to hear.  
  
"You get to drive?" Steph asked Robin from where the two couples were behind Sydney and Vaughn.  
  
Robin smiled. "On occasion. I love it."  
  
"She is talented," Jason said with a nod. He still remembered the first time he saw Robin on a bike, he recognized her talent, but it didn't keep it from scaring him half to death.  
  
"Can we get one?" Steph asked Johnny excitedly.  
  
"We'll think about it," Johnny laughed as he pushed his wife through the door.  
  
Everyone walked in to Johnny and Steph's living room. Jason and Robin took the couch. Johnny sat in his favorite chair, and pulled his wife into his lap. Syd and Michael stared at the last remaining chair. Syd gestured at the chair and once Michael sat down, Syd settled in comfortably at his feet, leaning against his legs.  
  
"Alright."  
  
Robin released a breath and took Jason's hand with hers. She knew her life story was one of the longest. "I'm Robin Sotilini Devane Scorpio Morgan. I've only been married the one time, but the other three are my last names. My parents were agents for the WSB. My mother a highly prized double agent till she and my father got divorced before I was born. When my father found out my mother was a double agent, he left her and never wanted to see her again. My mother chose to give me to a family friend, who I thought was my grandmother. I lived with her until the age of seven, thinking I was an orphan. My mother was family friend Luv, who visited me on occasion.. I would have done anything to have her as my mom.  
  
"At the age of seven I was kidnapped and conveniently left on the doorstep of Robert Scorpio, my father. Neither of us were any the wiser, but I loved him, and being around him. When my mom showed up looking for me, my dad figured it out, and they proceeded to have a huge fight. I was on the stairs, and found out. Now while it was a dream come true, it hurt that I was lied to, and that my mother had never had any intention of telling me. So I started doing what I have always done since when I need to get away, and climbed down my trellis and ran. I can't believe its still there.  
  
"Anyway, I was kidnapped again, and then my mother found me. I lived with my mother for a while and my father moved back to Australia. My mother ended up marrying Duke Lavery head of the Organization in Port Charles. And while I loved Duke, things were beginning to get dangerous. So I called my father and asked him to come home. I only had them around until I was 13. I thought they died in a boat explosion.  
  
"After my parents so called deaths, I lived in the same house with my uncle Mac. Mac was my, well third father technically. But he was always around, the one person who I could always count on. He was there through Stone.  
  
"Stone was my first love. And I did love him. He was fun and funny, wonderful, beautiful and young. He died younger than anyone should. After we had been together awhile, he found out he was HIV positive and that it had progressed into full blown AIDS. Less then a year from his diagnosis, he died. The one thing he regretted was passing the disease on to me. I thought I was as good as dead but I have been living with HIV for eight years now," she choked on the words slightly and felt the tears prick her eyes. Jason squeese her hand and then placed his arm around her, and held her closer.  
  
Robin looked up at her husband and smiled. "After Jason awoke from his accident, we quickly became friends. And soon after that, we were together. Jason and I learned to live again with each other, that there was something worth it out there. We both had difficulty making it work, and we had two rounds in Port Charles before I went to Paris to create a and stayed. A year later Jason came back to me, and I was uncertain about letting him back in. So we found our friendship again, but we were never good at being just friends, and we never really fell out of love. We were married two years after his arrival on my doorstep. We've been working as agents since my uncle contacted me for help three years ago."  
  
"So you were agents before you got married?" Stephanie asked with interest.  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Did you complete your medical degree?" Sydney asked.  
  
"Yes. Uncle Frisco says its one of my bigger assets as an agent."  
  
Vaughn studied the couple. "And just because I'm curious, does your entire family work as agents?"  
  
Robin laughed. "My parents, my uncle Frisco, and my uncle Sean are WSB. Uncle Mac is the Commissioner of Police in Port Chalres, which actually all of my WSB family members have done. Aunt Felicia is a PI. Before he died, Duke became an informant for the FBI. Uncle Luke runs a club with two sets of books. Um. Stone worked for Sonny, as Jason did."  
  
"Wow."  
  
Robin shrugged. "My family and friends use the rules to their advantage."  
  
"Alright, now on to Jason."  
  
Jason scowled. "Do I have to do this?" he asked Robin.  
  
"We all have to," Vaughn answered testily. "Some of us have to go again. You only have to do this once."  
  
Jason once again responded to Vaughn with a cold glare.  
  
"Alright. Do you want me to start with Jason Q or my Jason?" Robin asked, knowing that Jason wouldn't answer any questions.  
  
"Does it matter?"  
  
"Jason woke up from a coma seven years ago and was completely different from the Jason he used to be. Well they have similar traits, but the way they use them is very different. Their loyalties and tolerances. But Family is still the most important thing, along with living and loving. It's just what it entails that makes them different. Jason Quartermaine wanted to be a doctor and was faithful to the Quartermaines through everything. Jason on the other hand busted out of there after a few weeks. Jason only considers his family to entail those not Quartermaines who were not born Q's, our nephew Michael and me. and Sonny," Robin added hesitantly.  
  
"Besides me, Sonny was the first person to accept Jason and gave him a well paying job. He worked for Sonny for five years before he came to find me in Paris. And the rest is generally the same."  
  
"Interesting."  
  
"Alright. We need to get started on everyone else."  
  
Stephanie's and Johnny's -  
  
"Alright, we need a break," Sydney said as soon as she finished her  
  
"And food," Steph added, scrabling out of Johnny's arms. "Food would be wonderful."  
  
"Where are you calling?" Johnny asked. Our kitchen is just for show really. Although both of us can use the microwave, and the George Foreman Grill pretty effectively."  
  
Stephanie leaned over and patted her husband on the  
  
head. "I can preheat the oven, and make a mean frozen pizza. You call. I think we need some fresh air." She said motioning towards the girls.  
  
"And us?" Vaughn asked when Sydney nodded and bounded towards the door.  
  
Syd turned back to Michael and smiled. "Think of it as bonding time."  
  
With that the three girls escaped out onto the lawn.  
  
"How long do you give them?" Robin asked the other two as they walked towards the bike.  
  
Steph glanced back at the house and hoped that nothing would happen to anything in there. "Not long."  
  
"That thing is gorgeous," Syd said, staring at the bike. She could only imagine what it would feel like to be on that bike.  
  
"I've never actually driven that one," Robin said eyeing the bike.  
  
"Really?" Steph asked curiously.  
  
Robin shook her head. "I didn't start riding them on my own until I got to Paris. I loved riding them, but I promised that I wouldn't ride on the back of a bike with anyone but Jason. So I had to learn to ride them myself."  
  
"I want to try it," Sydney said, turing to Robin.  
  
"Driving it?" Steph asked, raising an eyebrow.  
  
"No, just a ride."  
  
Robin smiled. "Alright. My helmet," she said, picking up the helmet and handing it to Syd, and then she dived her hand into her pocket and pulled out keys. "and my keys. Well Jason's keys."  
  
Steph shot another wary look to the house. "Does he know?"  
  
Robin shot Steph a grin. "He will soon enough."  
  
"Are you sure you don't want your helmet?" Syd asked, considering putting the helmet on.  
  
Robin nodded and got on the bike. "It's around the block once. Or twice if Steph wants a ride."  
  
"If the guys don't freak."  
  
"Alright come on." Robin said.  
  
Sydney hopped on the bike and wrapped her arms around Robin as Robin turned the engine over and fed it with gas.  
  
Inside the guys were sitting around the living room looking mildly uncomfortable, while Johnny tried to keep conversation going.  
  
"What was that?" Vaughn asked hearing the roar come from out side.  
  
"The bike," Jason said, getting up and looking out the window just in time to see his wife tear off around the corner.  
  
"How did they get it to start?" Johnny asked, joining Jason at the window.  
  
"Robin took the keys."  
  
"There's only one helmet," Vaughn pointed out upon realizing that it was Syd on the back of the bike.  
  
As much as Jason didn't like Michael, he could hear the fear. "Robin's good. Really good," he assured Michael.  
  
"Let's go check huh?"  
  
"Ohmigod, I need one of those," Sydney said, pulling off the helmet and hopping off the bike.  
  
"Your turn?" Robin asked Steph, completely ignoring the glares she was receiving from Jason and Micheal.  
  
"What's the rule with you and helmets?" Jason asked her angrily coming to her side.  
  
"Get another one for yourself and we'll talk," Robin shot back.  
  
"Robin!"  
  
"Jason."  
  
"We ordered a pizza," Johnny said to his wife.  
  
"Did you remember the Jalapeno peppers, cause if you forgot the peppers you're sleeping on the couch for a week, and I mean it."  
  
"You never mean it. And yes I remembered the peppers. How long have we been married? I think I know what you like on your pizza."  
  
"Just checking. Great. It's not here yet is it?"  
  
"Let's have a chat," Vaughn said, taking Syd by the arm and pulling her away from everyone else.  
  
"Why don't I take you?" Jason offered to Stephanie.  
  
"Let me do it," Robin pleaded, still on the bike. "I think I'm in love with this one."  
  
"Off," Jason insisted.  
  
"I'm driving home."  
  
"Alright," Jason consented, helping her off and getting on himself. "Hop on."  
  
"A few minutes later Jason returned with Steph. "Johnny, we really need one of these." She said as she hopped off. "Thanks Jason."  
  
"We'll see. Let's go inside, Ms. Martin is outside, and she is incredibly too nosey."  
  
"She's only nosey cause she think's you're hot." Steph grumbled as they walked inside.  
  
"Are you jealous?" He asked teasingly.  
  
"No. I just think she needs to get her own husband. And really you don't help matters by going over there and fixing everything that's broken. You do more work over there, then you do here."  
  
Ten minutes later they were sitting down eating pizza in silence. "Anyone wanna try the pizza with peppers? Jalapeno peppers are seriously the best pizza topping ever."  
  
She was answered with a chorus of dubious looks and no thanks. "I'll a try slice." Jason said.  
  
"He'll eat anything." Robin spoke up.  
  
"This is pretty good." Jason told Steph.  
  
"Steph puts jalapeno's on practically everything. She eats them like some people eat ketchup."  
  
"Our plane leaves at 4:30 and its 2:00 now. We should probably pick up the pace a little. I was thinking it would be best if Johnny and I drove us all to the airport, we have an SUV, or if you guys wanted we could drive separate. Well Sydney you and Michael can drive separate, and Johnny and I will pick up Jason and Robin, that might work better, what do you guys think?"  
  
"Syd and I will drive separate, and you can take Robin and Jason."  
  
LAX Airport-4:00pm PST  
  
"Where's Steph?" Sydney asked as she and Michael approached the rest of the gang.  
  
"Buying gum." Robin answered.  
  
Michael noticed the way Robin was sagging against Jason, and the tired look in her eyes. "Are you ok, Robin?" He asked concerned.  
  
She smiled at his concern. "Its my protocol, they changed the combination a little bit, and I'm still adjusting."  
  
Jason looked down at Robin with concern. He had picked up on Robin's exhaustion, but when other people could it meant that Robin was really tired. He pulled her further away from everyone else. "You sure you're alright? Because we can wait here and meet up with them in Port Charles in a little while."  
  
Robin closed her eyes for a moment before looking at Jason and putting a hand on his arm. "I'm going to be fine Jason."  
  
The doctor had changed Robin's meds weeks before they had gotten "You've usually adjusted by now."  
  
"I know, they added in something more powerful then they have in awhile. We already discussed this when they changed them," Robin said with an aggravated sigh.  
  
"I just want to know you're alright. When were back in Port Charles you're seeing Alan," he insisted when he looked "I may not like him other wise, but he takes care of you."  
  
"I'm fine."  
  
"If you're not feeling better by Port Charles then you're seeing Alan," Jason conceded. Within moments his eyes were filled with apology and a hint of the fear. "Robin, I just--"  
  
"I know. I'm sorry you're worried," Robin said, burring herself back into his chest.  
  
"I love you," Jason said, leaning down and kissing her firmly on the mouth. "I don't like to think of the bad stuff, but sometimes--"  
  
"Yeah," Robin said, cutting him off. "Me too."  
  
Steph came up behind Johnny and wrapped her arms around her husband. "What have I missed?"  
  
"Nothing." Robin answered her with a smile, trying to leave the thought of Jason's worry behind her. "Michael and Sydney just got here, and Michael and Jason are behaving. Things are good so far. So Steph what's Bloomington like?"  
  
"The abridged version Steph, the abridged version." Johnny said lowering his head into his hands.  
  
Stephanie's smile couldn't be dampened by her husband's reaction. "Bloomington is awesome. Johnny and I are moving back there, when our CIA careers are over."  
  
"We are?" He asked her.  
  
"We'll talk about it later. Anyway, Bloomington is this great college town. Everything revolves around IU and the basketball team. My poor poor Hoosiers, are currently mirred in the worst losing streak in eighteen years. Things are not going good for them this year."  
  
"You're already getting off track. They wanna know about the town, not how much you think the University sucks since they fired Bob Knight, and that was coming next we both know it."  
  
"Well its true. But the town itself is great. Good restaurants, nice people. I love the Midwest, I miss the Midwest. I can't wait to get home. You guys will have to come in May for the Little 500."  
  
"Sounds like a great town." Sydney said.  
  
Airport ~ Indianapolis, Indiana -9:30pm Central Standard Time  
  
"We're here," Stephanie said excitedly as they exited the plane. "It even smells like home. I'm home," she said, turning to her husband.  
  
Robin heard a ring and picked up her cell phone. "Hello. Hey mom. Yes we got in fine. I'm fine. No not yet. Anyone can cook better then you Mom, we all know that. You'll be in Port Charles? Try to get Frisco there too. Daddy. I'm married. Happily. Guess. I know I know. I grew up with the rules, I know them by heart. You want to speak to Jason? Hold on."  
  
Jason sat on the phone and listened for a few long minutes. "Has she died? No more then when she's been around anyone else. Hi Anna," Jason said smiling. "Of course. Yes.  
  
"There are my parents. Come on." She said leading them through the crowd to where her parents stood. "Mom, Dad, it's so great to be home, I've missed you guys so much." She said embracing each of her parents.  
  
After releasing her daughter, and hugging her son-in-law Beverly Anderson went and hugged everyone else. Starting with a surprised Jason. "Mark and I are so glad you all are staying with us. Sydney when is the last time you and Michael have been in Bloomington? And Michael its so wonderful of you to bring your brother and his wife. There are so many things that we can do while you are here."  
  
"Bev let them catch their breath. We can plan the agenda tomorrow. Right now we need to get them home and settled in."  
  
"Are you guys hungry? We can stop out or when we get home I can make a snack."  
  
"We're fine Mom."  
  
"I wasn't asking just you Stephanie, I was asking everybody."  
  
"We're fine Mrs. Anderson." Sydney said.  
  
"Please call me Bev and he's Mark."  
  
An hour later they pulled into the Anderson driveway. "I don't think we passed a house that didn't have a basketball hoop." Michael commented.  
  
"We probably didn't." Steph said climbing out of the van. "This town, no this state revolves around the game of basketball. I love it."  
  
They all headed into the house. Jason and Robin and Sydney and Michael looked around the house and took it in. It was very relaxed and homey. "This place is great." Sydney breathed.  
  
"Steph, your Dad and I were thinking Michael and Sydney can sleep in your old room. Jason and Robin can sleep in the guestroom, and you and Johnny can sleep here in the living room on the sofa bed."  
  
"That sounds fine Mom." 


	4. Ch 4

We're never gone to long, can't with this one, especially with the lack of Alias and Jason/Robin on television. As this is in Bloomington, Steph's hometown, for this chapter and the next there will be a focus on them, just as a warning. Kind of like the earlier chapters were S/V heavy, when we hit Port Charles J&R will be in the focus, and back to LA more S/V and then Hawaii should be a healthy mix. This is not to say that there isn't a good amount of the other couples, it just leans one way because the people that they know are here. Make sense?  
  
To all of you who reviewed, thank you so so so so much. It means everything really and makes us want to write. It essentially means that we are not alone in our obsessions, and that other people might enjoy our little world.  
  
Laura&Carrie  
  
Ch 4  
  
Mark and Bev Anderson's house: Bloomington Indiana 10:30 PM  
  
"Alright, well you two know where you're sleeping," Bev said to her daughter and son-in-law before turning to her guests. "And let me just show you four the way. I'm sure it's not at all what you're used to but I hope it will do."  
  
"Bev hun," Mark said, knowing that his wife was about to talk their guests to death.  
  
"What?" Beverly asked, spinning around to glare at her husband. "They need to find where they're staying."  
  
She turned back to her guests after a moment and began to shoo them towards the stairs. "After you're settled in, you can come down to the kitchen for some food. Steph, sweetie," Bev said, turning before she headed to the stairs. "I have all of your favorites, so help yourself. And I got to buy jalapenos for the first time in so long. And Steph, please don't try and cook. Calling the fire department when you were sixteen was one thing, doing it now that you're all grown up I don't know what people would say." She turned back to the other two couples. "My Steph has cooking issues, it's horrendous."  
  
"Mom I've improved," Steph insisted and then pointed at her husband. "Ask Johnny."  
  
"Well," Johnny said after a few minutes of careful consideration. "She does wonders with frozen pizza."  
  
"You know Cindy Marshall, Cindy Taylor when you knew her. She does wonders in the kitchen," Bev told everyone, unaware that her daughter was beginning to fume. "She has a little restaurant, the food is the best. I'll have to take you all there some time."  
  
Stephanie waited until her mother had ushered everyone else out of the room and she was alone with her husband and father before she buried her head and a pillow and let a scream out.  
  
She lifted her head, her hair falling messily around her face. "Cindy Taylor was the biggest bitch."  
  
Johnny simply smirked at Steph. He took her hand and pulled her to him. "You know there's a house for sale right down the street. I saw it as we passed."  
  
Steph only glared at her husband. "Watch it O'Brien."  
  
"What?" Johnny asked giving her a clueless look.  
  
"She'll settle down soon enough sweetheart," Mark Anderson said, coming over and putting ha hand on Steph's back.  
  
Stephanie leaned back and smiled up at her father. "Thanks Dad."  
  
He leanded down and kissed her on the top of her head. "We're glad to have you back. And its good to see you too Johnny," he said, sliding his gaze over to the young man who had taken Steph away in his mind. He  
  
had gotten used to the idea of it yet, and it had been four years. "You've been taking good care of my little girl?"  
  
Steph turned to grin at her husband. "He takes wonderful care of me or I'll kill him," she said cheerfully.  
  
Johnny simply nodded. "And I know it."  
  
"Well I'm going to make sure your mother lets everyone settle in alone," he told them heading off for the stairs, where his wife was probably talking the guests to death.  
  
~Meanwhile~  
  
"Alright. So here we have the guest room," Bev said, ushering Jason and Robin inside. "It's not that big," she told them rather apologetically.  
  
"That's fine," Jason told her simply. "We've done with less"  
  
"Really? That's a abominable," She said with a gasp and seemed to miss Jason's quizzical look. "Well, the bathroom is just down the hall. You'll be fine."  
  
She then shut the dor behind her as she left and turned to Syd and Vaughn. She led them across the hallway.  
  
"Well this one is Steph's old room," she said as she pulled the door open and ushered them in ahead of her. "I understand the bed's kind of small."  
  
"Only slightly," Syd said staring at the double bed in the room. It wasn't big enough for her and Vaughn and space in between them unless they huddled on the edge.  
  
"But you know, you're a married couple. Newlyweds and all that. You should want to be close," Bev said, with a huge smile on her face, oddly reminding Sydney of the looks Steph had a tendency to give her when they'd discuss Vaughn.  
  
Vaughn gave Syd an amused glance before sliding his arms around her waist and pulling her close. "Yes we're madly in love. It really is hard to keep are hands off of one another."  
  
Syd blushed, partially from the fact that she really wished that was true, and from the fact that she was pulled up against him. "Michael," she admonished.  
  
"Oh you're embarrassing her," Bev chided, but was obviously pleased. "But I'm sure she enjoys it. Anyway, you can see how accomplished Steph was," she said, gesturing around the room, realizing that the younger couple probably didn't want to discuss certain things with her. "These are her trophies. Basketball was always her passion."  
  
"Hey kids," Mark said, popping his head in the door before grabbing his wife's arm. "Bev, honey, come on. Let's go down stairs."  
  
"Come back down in a half an hour, please," she said as she was pulled out of the room.  
  
Syd waited till they were out of the room and were far enough out of hearing before turning to Vaughn. "You're so taking the floor."  
  
"I know."  
  
Sydney continued to glare at the bed. "That's right give the not so married couple the smallest bed in the house. Steph knew," she acused whirling on him.  
  
Vaughn simply put his hands up in defense and walked over to the bed. He put a hand on it and pushed down. It definitely wasn't the most comfortable thing. "I think she was glad to not be using this bed again," he told Sydney with a laugh.  
  
"Watch it."  
  
"Hey. You're the one with the bed."  
  
"True," she acknowledged with a nod before turning back to her suitcase.  
Robin stood in the small guest room taking the clothes out of the suitcase and into the dresser. Jason was sitting on the bed not really saying anything, just watching her.  
  
Robin slid the drawer shut and turned around, leaning against it. "Well?" she asked.  
  
Jason could tell that she was asking him what he thought of the Andersons. "They're interesting."  
  
"Interesting how?" Robin asked, raising an eyebrow.  
  
"They're just a lot to take in Robin," Jason said with a sigh, standing up to pace and upon realizing there was no room sat back down on the bed.  
  
"You don't like that do you?" Robin said, standing in front of him and running a hand through his hair.  
  
Jason twined his arms around her waist and pulled her to him as he laid back on the bed. "I don't like overbearing."  
  
"They're not the same as the Quartermaines. Who we're going to have to see," she reminded him, thinking ahead to their imminent visit to Port Charles.  
  
"How do you plan on explaining 'my brother' to the Q's?" Jason asked her with avid interest.  
  
"We'll think of something.," Robin said, leaving a small kiss on the corner of his mouth. "We always manage to."  
  
"Can we ride up to the mansion on the bike just to piss of the old man?" he asked her laying kisses a long her neckline.  
  
Robin attempted to keep her mind on the situation that surrounded them. "That's not exactly safe."  
  
"I've got you," Jason reminded her as he rolled them both over. "He's crazy about you, but that's not surprising," Jason said before taking her bottom lip with his teeth.  
  
Robin shifted underneath him. "Why is that?" she asked once he let go of her lip.  
  
"Because you, Mrs. Morgan are the most amazing woman ever," he told her haltingly between kisses as his hand slipped up her shirt.  
  
Robin wanted to let it take her away, but she remembered they were ins someone else's house and "Jason," her protest came out a moan. She took a moment and pushed away at him. "Jason everyone's awake. We're in someone else's guest room."  
  
Jason simply raised an eyebrow. "And?"  
  
"And?" Robin asked incredulously. He began to kiss her again and she pushed him away again. "No. Stop it."  
  
"Alright," Jason said, rolling off of her. "Once we're sure everyone else is asleep?" he asked hopefully.  
  
"We'll see."  
  
"You can't tell me you want to wait the entire time we're here?" Jason asked incredulously.  
  
"We're in someone else's house," Robin responded.  
  
"We're happily married. It's perfectly normal."  
  
"We'll see. Would you get me my pills?"  
  
"You drive a hard bargain. Of course. Close your eyes, I'll be right back." he said standing and kissing her lightly on the forehead before heading off to the bathroom .  
  
Stephanie sat, curled up in one of the chairs in her childhood living room as she watched her husband pull the bed out of the couch. It was nice to be home, in a place that she knew and was familiar.  
  
"We're relegated to the pull out couch."  
  
"It's better than your bedroom."  
  
"What's wrong with my bedroom?" Steph asked indignantly.  
  
"It's a beautiful bedroom. It's just not built for two people."  
  
Steph grinned at Johnny. "Poor Syd and Micheal."  
  
"You're so upset."  
  
"this could help."  
  
"I'm positive he's sleeping on the floor," Johnny said without looking up at her.  
  
"Why?" she asked him quizzically.  
  
"How many times did you relegate me to the floor before you let go?" Johnny asked his wife as he pulled her into his arms. "And with bigger beds than the one upstairs."  
  
"Shut up."  
  
Sydney was running through the hallways of the DS-6 secure area in LA. Her father was here. Somewhere. She just had to find him. He was here. She knew it.  
  
Boom! Not that room.  
  
Boom! Not that one either.  
  
'The end of the hallway Syd,' a voice called in her head.  
  
She saw the doorway at the end of the long hall it would take forever to get to him. Sydney Bristow broke out into a run, knowing that if she didn't work her hardest right now she would lose her father. She couldn't lose him, not now.  
  
She kicked in the door to find her father strapped to a table. He looked like he was dying. Syd's heart was in her throat as Geiger looked up at her. She instantly was on the other side of the table and fought with Geiger until he was unconscious. She stood over him feeling the hatred build. She pulled out her gun and shot him point blank range on the floor.  
  
Then she turned her attentions to Jack Bristow.  
  
She quickly slid into the stool next to him and took his hand in hers. It was barely warm and limp. She had never seen him this bad. He didn't look like the Jack Bristow she knew. "Daddy?" she called her voice cracking and the tears starting to run down her face. "Daddy please look at me."  
  
"Syd." His voice was rough and scratchy. "Sydney."  
  
She let out a sob and squeezed his hand. "I'm here Daddy, right here," she promised and ran her free hand over her hair. "You're going to be alright," she promised him.  
  
Jack continued to look at her with cloudy, faraway eyes. "You're so beautiful Sydney," he murmured. "Like Laura."  
  
Sydney choked at her father's lapse of memory. "Laura doesn't exist Daddy. Momma's real name is Irinka," Why the hell didn't he know these things? Where the hell was Jack Bristow? Her father who knew everything. "Daddy please, come back to me," she cried out as she continued to sob.  
  
Jack looked at her with clear eyes for only a moment. "You'll be alright Syd. He'll take care of you," Jack promised her.  
  
"Who?" Sydney asked, shaking her father's hand violently. "You can't leave me here. I know we've had our problems lately, but I need you. I really need you. You don't know how much."  
  
"Or how much I need you," He responded. "Always have. I love you Sydney. Regardless of everything else I've always loved you."  
  
Sydney's tears only came harder at her father's admission. He had never been highly demonstrative. She noticed as his hand went limp, and she realized he wasn't breathing. "No! NO! Daddy, please."  
  
"He's gone Sydney," Arvin Slone's voice echoed through the room.  
  
Sydney's tears dried instantly. The bastard had killed her father, in a roundabout way and was now torturing her in his own way. "Where are you, you coward?" she shouted spinning around in a circle.  
  
"You'll never find me Sydney," his voice came through again. "But I'll always find you. You're not safe. You'll never be safe. Your father's gone, would you like to lose your lover as well."  
  
Sydney stopped. What the hell was he talking about? "I don't have a lover."  
  
"Agent Michael Vaughn seems like more than just a partner," Slone told her, and Sydney felt a shiver run down her spine. "He'll end up as dead as your father. And in the end so will you."  
  
"Sydney. Sydney," a male voice called out her name. She couldn't really place it.  
  
"Get off me," Sydney said striking out at the voice.  
  
Michael avoided a punch and a kick and shook her. Syd had been thrashing around for awhile now. She had been crying. "Sydney it's me. It's Michael."  
  
Her eyes opened wide and the relief that came over her face was somehow more heartbreaking then the desperate dreaming girl. "Oh Vaughn," she cried, throwing her arms around him.  
  
Vaughn sat on the bed with her in his arms and just rocked her gently. "You're alright. It was a dream Syd, just a dream. You're alright," he told her burring his head in her hair as he rubbed his hand on her back.  
  
"It was so much worse," she told him, still clinging. He tried t lay her down but she only held him closer. "Hold me. Please. His voice will echo in my head otherwise."  
  
"Who's voice Syd?" Vaughn asked her as he laid down on the bed with her, holding her close.  
  
She snuggled against him, instinctively moving closer to the comfort he gave her. "Slone," she mumbled against his chest.  
  
Vaughn held her tighter, wondering exactly what she saw in her dreams. With Arvin Slone there were a manner of horrors, especially in Sydney's mind. "Alright, I've got you," he promised her. "I've got you."  
  
He continued to stroke her hair, her back as he heard her breathing level out. He couldn't stop touching her, holding her. He wanted to be able to make it all go away for her. "I'll always be here Sydney, always," he murmured.  
  
Anderson house-11:00 AM  
  
"Oh good. There are some snacks here, and these," Beverly took one of the huge photo albums and opened it. She then placed it directly in between Robin and Sydney's laps.  
  
"Mom? Mom no," Stephanie said shaking her head as she came out of the kitchen. Smothering the impulse to slam the photo album shut, pick them all up and throw them in the fireplace to burn.  
  
"Oh Steph," Syd said, running a hand over the pictures before looking up at her friend. "You were so cute."  
  
"Wasn't she? I just love children."  
  
"Mom, those aren't the ones with the naked pictures are they?" Sydney asked curiously.  
  
"Sweetie these are all of my pictures."  
  
"Mom don't you think showing all of these to Johnny and his entire family, including people he hadn't even met, at the rehearsal dinner was enough embarrassment for one lifetime."  
  
"Poor Danny is probably scarred for life, I mean he was just a kid."  
  
"Johnny. Mom really." She said shooting her husband an icy glance that could rival one of Jason's cold stares any day. She then turned her eyes pleading in an instant and leveled her mother with a look.  
  
"Stephanie Marie, you don't want these people to know about your life?"  
  
"They know about my life."  
  
"What you've told them, not everything. But she was gorgeous wasn't she? I can't wait for grandchildren. I bet you they'll be just as gorgeous."  
  
"Lay it on thick Mom. You'll get grandchildren when you get them and not before."  
  
"Oh Stephanie you love children and we both know it."  
  
"I'm a busy woman mom. I work."  
  
"Prioritize dear.  
  
"Yes Mom, I'll just tell the CIA, 'well my Mom wants grandchildren now so I have to completely alter my entire working schedule for the next 18 years. Please its only a small matter of National security.' I don' think that'd go over real well."  
  
"That job is much to dangerous anyway."  
  
"Mom. I love it. How can you--"  
  
"Stephanie please. We have company."  
  
"That's the Bev Anderson golden rule, never let anyone know we're less than perfect."  
  
"Kitchen. Now."  
  
"Like they're not going to hear us yelling at each other in the kitchen."  
  
"I just don't want them to have to see it. We both know it won't be pretty."  
  
"They're going to know its ugly either way what's the difference. At least let them have front row seats for it."  
  
"Stephanie," Mark said, laying a hand on his daughter's arm. "Come on outside with me for a bit."  
  
Mark picked up the basketball that was lying in the driveway from their game earlier this morning and tossed it at his daughter. Instead of taking a shot, she fired the ball at the garage door, it hit the garage door with a bang, and bounced away. "That woman is infuriating." She said as she went to retrieve the ball.  
  
"She's proud of you and your accomplishments, she likes to show you off."  
  
"Dad she takes great pleasure in pointing out everything I've ever done wrong, and all of my shortcomings. 'My Steph has cooking issues, she's horrendus really.' " She said in the same tone her mother had used the night before.  
  
Mark rebounded the ball and tossed it back to Steph. "Sweetie, she doesn't see it that way, even though sometimes it does come off that way. A house full of people she thrives on it, she loves having your friends here. She finds the stories about your childhood endearing. And when she brings up other people, or points out something, she's trying to be helpful. Give you advice. She loves you Steph, you're everything to her."  
  
"I love her and I know she loves me. And I appreciate the life that she risked everything to give me. Who knows where I would be if she had stayed in Florida and I had been raised with Harlan Barrett as a father instead of you. I know I'm not home enough, and I don't call enough, and I know that she regrets the fact that I am her only child. I know she wanted a house full of kids. And I know she pressures Johnny and I to have children, because she doesn't want to see me end up like she did. She pushes to hard sometimes, and I push back, and I have a short fuse sometimes." Seeing the look on her Dad's face she added, "Most of the time. Thank you Dad for keeping me from imploding. You and Johnny could trade war stories sometime. The two of you are the only two people who can even remotely control me."  
  
"Its a tough job, but somebodies got to do it. Remember the time you beat the crap out of Anthony Clark when you were a junior."  
  
"And you had to beg the principal not to expel me. But really Dad was three months detention including Saturday's the best punishment you could get me?" She said as she launched a shot that found the bottom of the net.  
  
"You're lucky you got that, it was not one of your finer moments. You still have one of the best shots I've ever seen." He said with pride in his voice.  
  
"I should, you taught me."  
  
"You my dear had natural ability and an incredible work eithic, and drive to be good."  
Johnny figured that Steph and Mark had had enough time and walked out of the house and on to the lawn. He watched as his wife sunk a basket from the end of the driveway. "Hey," he said when she looked up.  
  
"Hey."  
  
"Take care of her alright. I'm going to go smooth things over with your Mother," Mark said touching Johnny on the arm as he pased the younger  
  
"I will," Johnny said to Mark before turning back to Stephanie. She was dribling the ball pretending to be okay. "Come here baby," he said holding out his arms as he got closer. Stephanie flew into his arms within a moment. "It's going to be fine."  
  
"I thought it was going to be better, I thought I had come to terms with it," she told him sniffling.  
  
"I'm sorry." He hated to see his wife cry, she rarely did it, which made the times when she did even worse.  
  
"I would kill to be able to give you children."  
  
"We're going to have to tell them sooner or later. You and I both know we would have had a child by now if that incident hadn't occurred." He said getting angry thinking about what those bastards had done to his wife. He tightened his grip on her as if to remind himself that he was holding her, and she was safe.  
  
"Johnny. We can't tell them. I can't take away their hope for a grandchild. It's like if we don't tell them, than the possibilty for a miracle still exists. Telling them makes it much more final."  
  
"Steph, honey you can't keep doing this to yourself. Your Mother would understand if she knew the truth, she would back off. You're torturing yourself."  
  
Steph angrily pulled out of Johnny's arms. "Me, since when is this just about me? I thought this was about us, that we were in this together. You act like none of this affects you, like you don't care one way or another if we have a child. You and I both know thats not true. Do you know what it feels like for me not to be able to give you a child when I know its what you want more than anything."  
  
"You're right I don't know what it feels like for you, but I know that it hurts you and it bothers you. I don't want to make that pain any worse for you, and thats what would happen if I went on and on about how much I want us to have a family."  
  
"So you think its better if you put on this air of indifference?"  
  
"Steph, baby, I don't know what you want me to say."  
  
"I saw past your indifference, I knew it was a cover. I hate it that you felt the need to shut me out."  
  
"That's not it."  
  
"It is, you felt like you couldn't tell me about your feelings on the subject, because it would hurt mine. Why are my feelings more important then yours? I love you so much, Johnny, more than I can put into words, and I want to be able to ease your pain and help you when you're hurting or have a problem. I can't do that if you don't talk to me, if you shut me out."  
  
He reached out and pulled her back into his arms. "We're both classic repressers."  
  
"Stephanie, bring Johnny in from the cold before the two of you catch your death from pneumonia, this temper tantrum of yours has lasted long enough." Bev called from the doorway.  
  
Johnny felt Steph tense in his arms. "There is a really good chance my Mother is not going to survive our visit in one piece."  
  
Johnny pulled back from Steph a little, "Incentive to behave." He told her before his lips met hers in a passionate kiss.  
  
She grabbed his hand and led him to the door. "You're so mean to me Johnny. We're on the pull out couch in the middle of my living room, and you're barely brave enough to hold me at night let alone do any of the things that kiss promised."  
  
They walked hand in hand into the living room. "Stephanie you owe your friends an apology for your little performance in here earlier, you're not a child anymore."  
  
"I'm sorry." She said fighting the urge to lead Johnny back outside.  
  
"Bev how about I make you some lunch?" Mark said pulling his wife into the kitchen.  
  
"Steph, the pictures from yours and Johnny's wedding are beautiful." Robin said trying to change the subject.  
  
Stephanie instantly smiled remembering her wedding. "Didn't Johnny look so cute in a tux?" She asked going to sit by Robin and Sydney so she could see the pictures from her wedding.  
  
"He did." Robin and Sydney agreed.  
  
"I almost fainted when I saw Jason in a tux at our wedding. Him in anything but jeans and a t-shirt is such a rarity."  
  
"What was your wedding like Robin?" Steph asked with interest.  
  
"Details, we want details." Sydney added.  
  
Johnny looked at the other guys and assumed their _expression matched his. "Wedding talk." He said miserably.  
  
"They're going to be at this for hours." Vaughn said.  
  
"Steph." He said. "I'm taking the guys to Nick's."  
  
"Have fun."  
  
"Who's Nick?" Robin asked.  
  
"Nick's pub." Johnny explained.  
  
"Are you sure that's a good idea? Jason, Michael, in public with alcohol."  
  
"If I can keep you from killing your mother, I can keep them from killing each other, besides there is a greater chance of dying of boredom listening to wedding talk than there is of them killing each other in public in broad daylight."  
  
"May the force be with you Luke." She smiled at him. "Wait, Johnny." She called before he could quite reach the door.  
  
"What?" He asked her.  
  
"If you guys aren't back in time, meet us at Bloomington High School South's gym at 6:00. My Dad has a game tonight, the biggest of the season."  
  
"I don't know how to get to South's gym, and I really don't think the four of them want to watch girl's high school basketball."  
  
"If you weren't already sleeping on the couch you would be."  
  
"I'm just saying not everyone shares your feverish passion for the game of basketball."  
  
"Fine, the four of them can stay here, or go out, or come to the game. You on the other hand better be back here on time, because you are going to the game, and when we get home, you are watching tapes my Mother made of all my games, and then tomorrow you can watch all the games that my mother has on tape from my college days. Have fun at Nick's." She said turning her attention back to the photo album.  
  
Nick's Pub  
  
They were sitting at a table in relative silence. "I don't know why I don't just shake my head and say 'yes dear' its not like I ever have a shot of winning an arguement with her."  
  
"I know what you mean, Robin always wins too."  
  
"As does Sydney." Michael added. "So umm, Steph and her Mom." Michael broached the topic carefully.  
  
"Bev is really a good woman, and she loves Steph a lot. They're just very different, and Bev doesn't even realize half the time what she does to make Steph angry. Sorry you guys had to witness it, that was actually fairly tame though."  
  
"I'm used to that stuff. The Q's would have done that within the first thirty mintues of meeting and something would have been broken along with various threats of bodily harm or eviction among other things."  
  
"It honestly wasn't that bad." Vaughn said. "Hell Sydney's Mom shot her in the shoulder at their reunion."  
  
"So you've lucked out in the family department." Jason said.  
  
"Not many guys can say their sister-in-law is an international supermodel."  
  
"Don't speak until after you've met her." Jason said rolling his eyes at the thought of Brenda.  
  
"So Johnny, why aren't we going to Boston to spend time with your family?"  
  
"My parents and I aren't that close since I joined the CIA. So they definitely would not be keen on being part of a mission. My brother Danny and my sister Eileen have classes, and my sister Angela, well she is always on the go. Really it doesn't make a lot of sense to make a stop in Boston."  
  
Meanwhile back at the Anderson House  
  
"So your wedding was held here in Bloomington?" Sydney asked continuing to look at the pictures of the happy couple, wondering if she would ever have a moment like the one she saw.  
  
Stephanie shook her head. "It was held in Boston. It's where Johnny's family is from. The reception was held at the family pub, which saved money. Plus Johnny's family is Irish Catholic, so his Mom made this huge deal about having the wedding in the church that he grew up attending with the Priest who baptized him, and confirmed him performing the ceremony," she told them, suppressing the rolling of her eyes that wanted to come with the memory.  
  
"You have issues with Johnny's family?" Robin asked.  
  
Stephanie let out a sigh wondering hot to explain. The O'Brien's were wonderful people they just didn't understand why their son did what he did. "Not exactly. Johnny's parents especially his mother are a little less than ok with his career in the CIA. I think they thought that getting married and settling down would make him rethink his choices. That his wife would maybe be able to influence him to do something more safe and move back to Boston. So when they learned that I too was a CIA agent, they're bubble was burst so to speak. His siblings are great, and I get along well them. Especially Danny and Leenie, Angela is closer to our age, but she has her own career going on."  
  
"So can you explain how you and Robin share a sister?" Sydney asked curiously.  
  
The other two women burst out laughing at that. Robin turned to look at Stephanie. "We never did explain that very well did we Steph?"  
  
"No not really. You do it Robin."  
  
"Alright, Steph's sister Brenda is my best friend in the entire world. We love each other like sisters. So we've just grown into introducing each other as sisters. We look alike so people don't question it. Around our hometown of Port Charles, people just know so its not a problem there. This situation is new. This is the first time that Steph and I have ever met. We just knew of each other in passing."  
  
"You know what else is freaky?" Steph said piping up as she grabbed a handful of pretels from a bag on the table.  
  
"Hmm?"  
  
"My brother Zander dated Jason's sister Emily."  
  
"Mark look at them." Bev commanded softly so the three girls couldn't hear her. She watched the girls laugh, and talk, and look at wedding pictures with a wistful smile on her face from the kitchen doorway.  
  
"What about them?" her husband asked from where he was fixing up a snack for himself.  
  
"The three of them they look so much alike. Look how well they get along with each other. They could pass off as sisters."  
  
"They're beautiful girls." Mark agreed wrapping his arms around his wife.  
  
Bloomington High School South Gymnasium  
  
"Ahh the memories." Steph said wistfully, vividly remembering the victories she had triumphantly one here, much to the chagrin of the Bloomington South. "I've got some good memories of this gym, I had one of my best games here."  
  
"The fans here didn't like her very much." Bev said. "She loved that they hated her."  
  
"If they were razzing me, they weren't cheering on their own team. Did you guys play team sports?" She asked the other girls and Jason.  
  
"No." Robin answered for herself and Jason. "Well Jason Q did, football, but that doesn't really count now."  
  
"I didn't either." Sydney said.  
  
Steph gave them all a sad smile as if they didn't know what they were missing. "You guys don't go to many sporting events either do you?"  
  
"Nope." Robin said with a smile.  
  
"Michael and I have been to a couple of hockey games." Sydney said smiling.  
  
They got settled in for the start of the game. Steph stood for most of the first half which was closely contested. Bloomington H.S North trailed by seven at half time. "You guys want something from the concession stand?" Johnny asked.  
  
"I'll go with you." Michael said when they had figured out what everyone wanted.  
  
Bev disappeared to talk to some friends of hers and Steph went to down by the locker room to catch her Dad, she had some strategy she wanted to share with him. When they were alone Jason leaned over and whispered to Robin. "I can't believe these people."  
  
Robin looked around the bleacher section before glaring at her husband. "That comment could get us mugged or something," she whispered back. "So its not mine or your idea of a great time. Its not awful, and I thought you liked sports."  
  
"I do," moderately, Jason thought to himself before continuing. "but these people are extremists, Steph included."  
  
"Poor baby." She said kissing him on the cheek.  
  
"Dad." Steph said catching his arm as he walked back to the bench. "Their zone is killing you. You have to penetrate the gaps and kick out to the open shooters."  
  
Mark gave his daughter a slanted look. "I know."  
  
Steph didn't pick up on the look, but instead continued on with her mental notes on the game. "And Dad your point guard is telegraphing her passes. Ball fake and then pass. Their defenders will jump out of their shoes to go after her fake."  
  
"Anything else coach?" he asked her sarcastically, expecting her to laugh a bit and head back to her seat. He should have known better.  
  
Steph looked at him with complete serious and continued. "You're girls might do better in a 1-2-2 zone. I'd try it for one or two defensive sequences, see if it works. But watch the shooters in a zone, that's the only drawback."  
  
He thought about it. "I'll try it."  
  
After the game, which North won by three, Mark took the gang out to Noble Romans for pizza. "See Dad aren't you glad you took my advice?"  
  
"Honey, you definitely have a career in coaching when and if you want it," Mark told her as he slung an arm over his daughters shoulders.  
  
Steph gave out a small laugh. "I don't know if I have the patience to be a coach."  
  
"You could do it." Bev told her daughter.  
  
"See Johnny, now we have to move back here when we're done in LA.." He just shook his head and kissed his wife. 


	5. Ch 5

We've been gone way to long. I'm a major problem, I'm telling you. Thank goodness for my partner in crime Carrie. Once again B-town leads to a Steph/Johnny intensive chapter, but with enough of everyone else. Little more is revealed, and hopefully next chapter we will be moving along, and hopefully next chapter will be out faster.  
  
To all who have replied, I don't think we say thank you enough. Other writers know how much reviews mean, and for those of you who aren't it means everything, it means someone cares. It makes us want to write.  
  
Anyway, Enjoy!  
  
Laura&Carrie  
  
Ch 5  
  
"Johnny, wake up." Stephanie said gently nudging her husband.  
  
"Steph, its, I don't know what time it is, but its too early for you to be waking me up." He mumbled sleepily.  
  
"Please come outside with me and play basketball and play basketball with me and my Dad."  
  
"I don't like to play games with you. You're too competitive, and you always win."  
  
"You can be on my team."  
  
"And leave your poor Dad all alone, how fair is that?"  
  
"We can wake the others up. They can't leave Indiana, and say they didn't play basketball."  
  
"I'm sure the prospect of that happening is leaving them heartbroken crying into their pillows about how unjust the world is. I mean its practically an international event, you call yourself a Hoosier, and your friends are going to leave without playing a game on the holy ground of basketball that is Indiana."  
  
"You're asking for trouble." She said as she climbed on top of him. She pinned his arms above his head and kissed him.  
  
"Steph, were in the middle of the living room of your parents house. Anyone could walk in and see us."  
  
"Johnny." She said kissing him again. "We're married, and my family is practically begging us for grandchildren. I think they know that I am highly attracted to you, and that I happen to enjoy kissing you." She ended that statement with a kiss. "Well, I like doing other things to you too, but we are in the middle of my parents living room." She said with a wicked grin.  
  
Robin and Jason were coming down the stairs, when they saw Johnny and Steph. "Robin if they can make out in the middle of the living room where anyone can see them, what's the big deal about us making out behind closed doors?"  
  
"Morning." Steph said cheerfully, she made no move to get off Johnny. "Robin you shouldn't feel embarrassed about making out or whatever in this house. You're a happily married woman, we all expect you to be highly attracted to Jason. Who wouldn't be."  
  
"My ego is shattered."  
  
"I'm married not blind."  
  
"Steph leave them alone. Not everyone is as shameless as you are."  
  
"There is nothing here to be embarrassed about."  
  
"Jason and I are just going to head the kitchen, and then we'll go back upstairs and out of your way."  
  
"No need. Johnny and I are getting up to go play basketball outside anyway. Well, as soon as my Dad drags his butt out of bed. Why don't you guys come out and play too." She said as if the idea just hit her. She climbed off Johnny. "I'm going to go wake my old man up, and see if Syd and Michael want to play. This is going to be so much fun." She said bounding up the stairs past a speechless Jason and Robin.  
  
"I didn't agree either. Really, she does whatever the hell she wants. And she is wonderful at not taking no for an answer. Pray you end up on her team. She plays every game like its the National Championship game."  
  
"Dad come on." She said knocking on the door. "And I'm in a good mood bring Mom out to play too. Hurry, we wanna get in a good game before you have to go to school, and before Mom's kids get here."  
  
She moved onto Syd and Michael's room. The door was cracked and she gently pushed it open wider. She was about to say something when she noticed that Sydney was literally engulfed in Michael's embrace. She watched them with a smile on her face, and then turned to leave. "You're such a spy." She heard Sydney's raspy voice.  
  
Steph turned back around. "Well, dear I am a spy, as are you. But that's not why I came up here. The rest of us are going outside to play a game of basketball. So I was coming to get you two. But I can see you're comfortable so don't worry about it, go back to bed, sleep, enjoy." She said with same wicked grin she had given Johnny earlier.  
When Sydney heard Steph reach the bottom of the stairs, she nudged Michael awake. "Come on we have to get dressed and go play basketball."  
  
"No." He mumbled and pulled Sydney closer to him. "Stay here."  
  
"Vaughn." She said reverting back to calling him by his last name. "We have to go. Steph came up here, and she saw us, and right now she's probably downstairs gloating or something. If we don't go outside, she'll think..."  
  
"Don't care what she'll think." He said still half asleep.  
  
"Vaughn!" She practically yelled.  
  
He sighed and opened his eyes. "I can't believe you seriously want to get out of this nice warm bed at 5:45 in the morning to go outside and play basketball. We're in freaking Bloomington, Indiana, in the middle of February its cold outside."  
  
"This from the big bad ice hockey player." She said rolling her eyes.  
  
A few minutes later they joined everyone else. "Johnny, its no fun when we're on the same team. I only said you could be on my team when it was going to be the three of us, now we have more people."  
  
"Are we interrupting something?" Sydney asked amused.  
  
"No. Johnny's being a big baby. To hear him whine you'd never believe he played college football in Michigan. 'Steph its cold outside,' " She mimicked Johnny. "He played football at Michigan, its not exactly tropical up there."  
  
"Boys." Sydney said rolling her eyes. "Mr. Bigshot hockey player didn't want to come outside either."  
  
"Lets get this show on the road. Johnny you go be on the team with my parents. Dad pick someone else for your team."  
  
"Robin."  
  
Robin moved towards Mark's team but faltered slightly. Within two seconds Jason had her in his arms and was stalking off towards the house.  
  
"Jason I'm fine put me down," Robin protested the second she got her berings back and knew what her husband was intending to do.  
  
"You're taking a nap," Jason told her firmly without looking down at her.  
  
"I don't need a nap," she told him indignantly. She then chose to look up at him, and saw the way his jaw was clenched and she assumed if she could see his eyes there would be fear there. "I'm fine Jason really."  
  
"Sorry about the game," Jason called to everyone else as he headed up the steps to the house. "You guys have fun."  
  
"It's just the meds," Robin said frustrated as Jason went to pull open the door.  
  
"Fine," Jason told her, wrenching the door open. "Give me the name of the doctor that prescribed them to you so I can find him and kill him."  
  
Stephanie couldn't hold back a small giggle before turning back to everyone else. "Well I suppose that fixes that. Lets play." She sent one last glare her father's way. "We're going to win. I don't lose."  
  
The game lasted until Mark had to get ready to go to school. It was decided to call the game a draw. They headed inside for breakfast laughing and joking around.  
  
"I can't believe how fun that actually was," Sydney said as they headed back in.  
  
"Isn't it great? My Dad and I played like that every morning from the time he married my Mom until the day I left for Stanford. And we still play every morning when I'm home." Steph said with a huge smile. "When Johnny and I got married I tried to make him get up and play every morning, but it didn't work real well. We play occasionally, but usually we take a run or something."  
  
After breakfast Steph and Johnny were putting the living room back together when there was a knock on the door. "Steph honey, can you grab that, I am sure its just one of my clients, and be nice." Bev called from upstairs.  
  
"No, I was thinking more along the lines of kicking their ass, before they can utter hello." She said to Johnny as she made her way to the door. "Hello." She said as she opened the door.  
  
"Hi." The woman said. "I hate to just drop her off and run, but this is Jessica, and this is her first time here. I really want to stay and chat, but I gave Beverly all the details on Friday when I met with her, and I'm running so behind schedule." She said placing the baby in a very surprised Steph's arms. "Oh Jessica, Mommy is going to miss you so much. You would think I would be ok with this, I've had four months alone with her." She said to Steph. "Miss are you ok?" She asked when Steph didn't say anything. "Oh God this is the right house right? I mean Beverly Anderson does live here, doesn't she. I was so sure I had the right house."  
  
"You've got the right house." Steph finally managed to choke out.  
  
"Ok good. Then I've really got to go." She said kissing baby Jessica on the head, and walking back to her car.  
  
Steph closed the door and headed back into the living room with Jessica cooing in her arms. "Mom, come here and get baby Jessica."  
  
"Steph I'm in the middle of something can't you hold her for a few minutes."  
  
"Johnny for the love of my mental health go up there get my Mother and bring her down here, I don't care how you get her down here, just get her down here."  
  
Johnny couldn't take his eyes of the sight of his wife holding an infant. He stood perfectly still a look of shock, pain, and anger plastered on his face. "It's not fair." His mind screamed at him. "This is a sick joke. Let's see how much more torture Johnny and Stephanie can take. Man does she look beautiful with a baby. She would be such a good mother." He snapped out of his thoughts and looked at his wife. She looked ready to break. He did the only thing he could think of; he walked over to her, wrapped his arms around her as best he could with a baby between them, and pressed his lips to her forehead.  
  
"You guys look so perfect with a baby." Beverly said coming down the stairs. She was about to take the baby from Steph when there was another knock on the door. "The Jones triplets, come on in." For the next five minutes it was a steady stream of toddlers and preschoolers, until finally all the kids were accounted for.  
"Mom, come in here and take her." Steph said trying to keep her voice void of the tears that we're threatening to fall.  
  
"Steph, let me get these guys downstairs to the playroom first. Oh and I've got to get a bassinet set up. She's the first baby we've had in a few months. I'll be back up in fifteen minutes. You can manage. By the time I get up here, you and Johnny won't want to give her up."  
  
"I cannot hold this baby for fifteen more minutes, and I cannot watch you hold her either."  
  
"Hey, how many kids does your Mother watch." Vaughn asked coming down the stairs with Sydney, Jason, and Robin. "And who do we have here?" Vaughn asked peering down at the baby. "She's cute."  
  
"You think she's cute Michael, here you hold her then. My Mom will be back upstairs in fifteen minutes to get her." She said depositing the baby safely into the arms of a startled Vaughn, and turning to flee up the stairs.  
"Was it something I said?" Vaughn asked Johnny, who was staring worriedly up the stairs.  
  
"She can't have kids can she?" Robin asked gently.  
  
"No." Johnny whispered.  
  
"And she hasn't told her family."  
  
"No."  
  
"Would it be ok, if I went upstairs and talked to her for a little bit?" Robin asked.  
  
"Yeah sure, just come get me when you're done."  
  
"Ok." Robin said with a sad smile as she headed up the stairs.  
  
"She'll be ok, Robin understands probably better than you or I ever could. Come on." He said motioning for Johnny to follow him into the kitchen.  
  
"Looks like its just me, you, and the little nameless wonder here." Michael said to Sydney.  
  
Sydney leaned over him to get a better look at the baby. "She is cute." She said tickling the baby.  
  
All Vaughn could concentrate on was the smell of Syd's shampoo, and the proximity of her body to his. "This could be your life Mike." He thought to himself. "You can have this."  
"Lets go sit on the couch." Syd said taking Michael by the elbow and leading him over to the couch.  
They sat in silence for a few minutes. "Do you want this?" He asked.  
  
"This?" She asked confused. "She's a baby not an object."  
  
Vaughn shook his head. "No, not do you want to hold her, you can if you want too. I meant someday do you want this, the big picture, the husband, the kids, the dog, the minivan."  
  
"Someday." She said closing her eyes to get the mental picture. She saw Vaughn lying in the grass playing with Donovan and little girl with brown hair and green eyes. "Vaughn, how the hell did he get in my day dream?" She asked herself silently. "What about you? Do you want it?"  
  
Vaughn didn't event think, but gave off a lazy smile as he said, "Only with you."  
  
Sydneys eyes widened to the size of saucers. He didn't say that. He couldn't have. "What?"  
  
'Oh, sweet Jesus, did I say that out loud.' His panicked mind asked in horror. Vaughn hit himself mentally. 'Nice job stupid. Scare the girl off by telling her you want to have the whole picture with her. There's the way to her heart.'  
  
"Vaughn what did you say?" Syd asked after a long uncomfortable pause.  
  
He looked up from the baby, who he had been using to distract himself. "I said I already have the dog."  
  
Her eyes simply narrowed at him. "Liar."  
  
"What I do already have the dog."  
  
"You..." The sound of the babies cries cut her off. Sydney watched amazed as Vaughn went right to work calming the baby down. He spoke to her in a gentle hushed soothing voice. She smiled at the sight in front of her. "He's amazing, he's simply amazing." She thought. "I want it with you too, but I can't let it happen." She cried silently.  
  
Meanwhile upstairs  
  
Robin knocked on the door to Steph's old room. "Steph can I come in?"  
  
"Yeah." Came the muffled reply.  
  
She cautiously went into the room. The sight of the strong woman currled up in the window seat broke Robin's heart a bit, but it was a scene she knew all too well. "I'm not even going to ask you if you're ok, because I know your not."  
  
"Johnny told you." Steph asked from her position on the window seat.  
  
"Yeah. I asked him though, he didn't just volunteer the information," Robin said as she crossed the room and sat down next to Stephanie. "I understand what your going though."  
  
"No, you don't," Steph said angrily, defiantly. "There is nothing that prevents you from conceiving a child. You haven't had a doctor tell you that medically the chances of you getting pregnant are so slim you shouldn't even hold out any hope." And she remembered that day all too well. And the words no hope. No hope at all.  
  
Robin let out a sigh. "You're right I haven't. Not having children is something Jason and I decided, not because we don't want any children though, but because my HIV makes it a risk."  
  
"You could still get pregnant though Robin," Steph said sadly, knowing that there would be a chance for the woman across from her. "Even with all the precautions you and Jason take you can still have a baby. It would be unplanned, and it would be scary, and risky, but it would be. It would take a literal miracle for Johnny and I to have a baby."  
  
Robin slipped an arm around Stephanie, knowing that the desolation that was threatening to overwhelm her. "You don't believe in miracles?"  
  
"I can't live my life waiting for something that probably will never happen." She stopped to wipe away some of her tears. "Johnny would be the best father," she said, gaining a wistful smile on her face as she let her mind imagine. "He loves kids so much, and I know that it hurts him more than he'll ever admit to not be able to be a father. I see him watch other families when we run in the park, or when we're at the grocery store. I see the look on his face while he watches them, first its sort of a little smile, and I know he's wondering what it would be like, then the smile goes away, and he closes his eyes and lets out a soft sigh, and I know that's when it hits him he'll never know what its like."  
  
"Jason would be an incredible father too." And then she saw Michael again. Jason sitting with the little boy in his arms, talking about some far off place, motorcycles or even sex and making love. "He was an incredible father, and I took it away from him."  
  
Stephanie lifted her "What? Why?"  
  
"It wasn't his baby," Robin said, shaking her head to get rid of the old memories and pain. There was no point in reliving the past, especially when she had been right. "It was his brother's, he was going to raise Michael as his own. For awhile he did, and he was an awesome parent. Long story short I told AJ the truth, and Jason ended up losing Michael. It broke us up for awhile, I thought forever, but somehow we made it back to each other. I took away a baby he considered his own, and can't give him one that would really be his own."  
  
"I compartmentalize everything, its what I'm trained to do," Steph explained, trying to make sense of it all herself. "Most of the time it works, and I can accept not being able to have a baby. When I'm here at home, and my Mother is yammering away twenty-four hours a day about grandchildren, its just hard. Today holding that baby, I felt physical pain. I couldn't do it, I thought about giving her to Johnny, but I couldn't watch him with her either. And he had to watch me hold her. As much as it hurt holding her it felt so right, and as much as I couldn't wait to give her to someone else, I wanted to hold her forever." Steph was crying harder now.  
  
Robin went for it and wrapped her arms around the other woman and pulled her close. She stroked a hand over her hair. "I know. Believe me I know." She said thinking back to the times she lived with Michael and Jason.  
  
Meanwhile downstairs in the kitchen  
  
Johnny and Jason just stood in the kitchen watching each other in silence for a few minutes. Neither one knew exactly how to start the conversation they were about to have.  
  
"You and Robin can't have children either?" Johnny hazarded a guess after a few moments. After the way Robin had guessed and chased after Steph, and Jason having pulled him to the side, it was the only thing he could come up with that would have spurned them to do anything fo the sort.  
  
"For Robin and I its different," Jason said, as he absentmindedly hoisted himself up onto the counter. "We made the choice not to have kids, but that doesn't change the fact that it hurts like hell."  
  
"God do I know that one. Especially seeing her with a baby like today."  
  
Jason's mind sprung back through the years seeing Robin holding Michael once again. "Yeah."  
  
"She was on a mission with a new partner," Johnny said, going back through the years to those days. He had felt so impotent. He knew Jason hadn't asked for their life story, but he felt the strongest urge to tell it. "Something went wrong and she was caught. All I knew was that I had to get to her. We weren't together, but that doesn't stop you from loving someone. I couldn't escape the fact that I couldn't lose her without telling her the truth. As you can see she's alright. Sort of," he qualified, seeing all to clearly the look that had been in her eyes as she held the baby. "But she was abused to the point that there was major scaring in her abdomen. The doctor told us it would take a miracle for her to ever conceive a child."  
  
Jason only nodded. He could remember Robin telling him everything, the many long discussions they had had over the years about HIV and the way it affected her life. "It's hard, all of it, knowing you've got to tell everyone in your life what you feel so they know what it is before there's no chance, because that's your life. Then the thought that you're not going to have a family of your own. And you don't want to care, because there is nothing else they can do about it, or you, and the last think you want is for her to feel guilty."  
  
"But you can't stop it," Johnny continued for him, knowing that this man got it like no one else ever had. "And it makes you feel like such an ass because it makes her feel defective and she isn't. It wasn't enough to turn me away from her, nothing could ever do that. Living without her is not an option, but some days she thinks Id be better off with someone who could give me a family."  
  
Jason could only nod. "That's about it." He didn't want to admit to much about himself to a man he hardly knew, redargeless if they were supposed to be on the same sign. He could tell this man needed to talk, but he wasn't going to let it pull too much out of him.  
  
Johnny resisited the urge to kick the refrigerator. "And the thing that pisses me off the most, is there's no way to fix it. I would give anything to make it all alright, but I can't do that. In a way it makes me feel like I've failed her in a way."  
  
Jason took a moment to rub his hands over his face. Wanting to be able to fix Robins world was the one thing that he had never been able to do. "God do I know that feeling."  
  
"What feeling?" a soft voice echoed through the room.  
  
Jason and Johnny looked up and spotted Robin standing in the doorway. "Hey baby," Jason said, smiling, as he slid over the counter and took his wife in his arms.  
  
Robin took a moment to squeeze Jason and breathe him in, the mix of scents she knew too well. It was nice to know when all else failed Jason was around to hold onto. She waited another beat before pulling back and looking at Johnny. "I think she needs you right now."  
  
Johnny simply nodded, and gave Robin a small smile. "Thanks."  
  
"No problem," Robin told him. Smiling back as Johnny past them on his way to the stairs.  
  
Robin turned back to her husband, and buried her head in his chest. He just held her close, knowing exactly what was running through her head. They didn't need too many words for this one, they had already discussed it in full.  
  
"It's already starting to be a long day," Robin said as she finally pulled back and looked up at Jason.  
  
There it was, the hint of sadness in those big brown eyes. Jason didn't know what else to do but pull her back to him and simply say, "I know." It wasn't shaping up to be the best of days. Jason couldn't help but wonder if it took little weaknesses to tear people down this early what would it be like to be on the missions.  
  
"What feeling?" Robin asked after a moment, pulling back again. She lifted her arms to encircle his neck this time.  
  
Jason simply gave her a quizzical look, not understanding what she was asking. "Hmm?"  
  
"You said you knew that feeling," Robin said pressing on, although she knew that this was probably the last thing her husband was interested in discussing. "What feeling?"  
  
Jason let out a sigh and forced himself to keep his hands around Robin instead of rubbing them over his face again. He didn't want to answer, but he knew that Robin would press him until he did so. "Wanting to fix things for someone you love and not being able to do it."  
  
Robin felt a quick pang in her heart for her husband. "Jason," she said softly, taking a hand and cupping his face softly. He had always liked being able to fix things for her. Making her smile, she remembered fondly, had always been one of his favorite activities since their first meeting on the bridge.  
  
Jason let go of her and moved out of her grasp to pace a bit. "It's not something I can stop or change." He stopped and looked at her with desperate eyes. "I want you happy."  
  
"I am happy," she told him plainly, crossing the room to where he stood. Why couldn't he understand that?  
  
Jason gripped her elbows with his hands. "I want you to live."  
  
Robin let out a sigh. She knew what he meant but her definition of living was slightly different. "I am living, every day," she told him, cupping his face with her hands once again and forcing him to look her in the eyes. "You gave me that. Please don't forget that my being able to live every day as I do was your gift to me."  
  
"No. Not like that. This is me being selfish," he told her, the harshness in his voice pointed at himself. Why was it the more that he thought about it, the more he realized that he wanted all of this for himself? "Never wanting you to be gone, never wanting to have to feel your pain cause it hurts me too. And you say I gave that to you Robin, how could I when I didn't know what living was? Or anything else. All I knew was you."  
  
Robin looked at him with understanding but no pity. She simply nodded at him. "That's about it. What do you think me asking Sonny to fire you was?" She waited a moment for him to remember and realize that she would always understand before taking his hand and puling him towards the living room. "Now lets go make sure that Sydney and Michael aren't left out there alone the entire time. I mean we are family," she reminded him, turning to give him a grin over her shoulder.  
  
Jason instantly closed the gap and wrapped both of his arms tightly around her waist. "You think you're cute," he told her as he kissed her on the cheek.  
  
"Oh I know it."  
  
The walk up the stairs to Steph's old bedroom had seemed like one of the longest of his life. It was so hard to watch his strong and stubborn wife falter like this. She wasn't a fan of the fact that it could happen or would happen, and when it did it was never ever a good sign.  
  
He took a deep breath and released it, before knocking on the door as he opened it. "Steph? Baby?" he asked as he came into the room.  
  
Stephanie sniffled for a moment and ran her hand under her eyes to get rid of some of the tears. "Yeah?" she said looking up at him.  
  
Johnny said nothing but crossed the room and taking her in his arms. He felt as more tears slipped out of her eyes and fell on his shirt. "God I'm so sorry," he murmured as he held her close, not knowing what to do.  
  
It took a moment for her husband's words to settle in Steph's head. Once they did she pulled back to look at him, stopping her tears as a bit of the anger at the injustice tried to get out, but she simply sounded weary. "For what? My condition is not your fault. My freaking out was not your fault. I know how to compartmentalize, and I do it so well," she said, disappointed in herself. "I haven't been this affected since."  
  
"Since you were told," Johnny finished for her when she trailed off. "And the second and third and millionth opinion confirmed it. And then you shut it down, and you do it well, but it's too important to you."  
  
"I wanted that," she said, pointing down stairs, referring to holding baby Jessica and what it had symbolized. "The whole shebang. I mean growing up here it's kind of hard not to want that you know? And then I find the man of my dreams," she said brushing her fingers over his face, "and it's nearly all at my fingertips except this one thing. And it hurts you know?" she asked "So close and yet so far away."  
  
"Yeah I do. I'm sorry I didn't react. It was just you standing there with that perfect baby in your arms, and for a moment, it was like it could be real. But it wasn't, and it felt like a part of me was dying."  
  
"You deserve so much better."  
  
"Then what? You? Baby there is no one better."  
  
"Don't do that."  
  
"There's that smile. Steph I don't really know what to do to make you feel better."  
  
"You're doing it right now. Holding me is the best thing you can do for me. It makes me feel safe and loved. That's all I need."  
  
"Good. I can do that."  
"Oh she really is the cutest thing." Robin said getting a good look at the baby who had managed to take four strong willed agents and make them all go emotional in a matter of seconds.  
  
"You want to hold her."  
  
"Yes. They're all so perfect at this age. I got very lucky with enough family to spoil rotten at young ages."  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"Mmhmm. Two younger cousins. A few nieces and nephews. And I did a lot of work with kids before I got involved in this business."  
  
"It was me, my nanny and my dad when he had some time. I'm not that good with children at all."  
  
"If this one's mother doesn't come for her I might have to ask about keeping her."  
  
"They all inspire that don't they? Come here angel. Where did Stephanie and Johnny go?" Beverly asked coming into the room.  
  
"They disappeared upstairs to talk." Robin said knowing her friends needed to be alone.  
  
"One can only hope they're discussing grandchildren. I can't wait to have grandchildren to spoil. I want to be young enough to enjoy them, and I can see Mark outside with them in the morning playing ball, just like he does with Steph." Bev said smiling at the mental picture.  
The four agents shared an uneasy glance. "Who knows what they're talking about? Steph said something about making Johnny watch hours and hours of girls basketball or something. He's probably trying to get out of it." Vaughn said trying to steer the conversation away from Johnny and Steph having children.  
  
"My Steph was a great basketball player." Bev said moving to the entertainment cabinet. "We have all of her high school games on tape. Not so many of her college games, she went to school on the west coast, and we didn't get out to a lot of her games. And that was back in the day, before women's basketball exploded, very rarely were her games on TV. But we've got a few." She scanned the collection of videos. "This one is my favorite." She said pulling out a tape.  
  
"Look what you did." Syd whispered loudly enough for Michael, Robin and Jason to hear.  
  
Robin and Jason sent him a pained look. "Anything is better then listening to her go on and on about the grandchildren we know she is never going to have. So we're just going to suck it up and watch a good game of basketball, and we know its good or she wouldn't be showing it." He said in a stern whisper.  
  
Steph and Johnny came down the stairs to see her Mom fiddling with the VCR. "Mom what are you doing?"  
  
"Michael mentioned that you were going to show them one of your games. So I'm putting one in."  
  
"Which one are you putting in?"  
  
"My favorite."  
  
"Narrow it down a little for me Mom, every game I ever played was your favorite.  
  
"West Regional final, The Forum, senior year. Against Vanderbelt."  
  
Steph smiled. "That was a good game." She pushed Johnny down onto the Lazy boy and climbed onto his lap. He wrapped his arms around her, and helped her get comfortable. "I loved college." She said wistfully, thinking back to her days in Palo Alto.  
  
"I've got to get back to the kids. I left them with my assistant." She pushed play and disappeared back downstairs.  
  
After a few seconds of static, a shot of the audience showed up on screen and the announcers voice started. "Welcome to the forum, tonight's regional final pits Stanford against Vanderbelt."  
  
"What does Stanford have to do win tonight?"  
  
"Stanford will go as far as Stephanie Anderson can take them." The camera panned to a focused looking Steph sitting on the bench receiving instructions from head coach Tara VanDerveer. "She's the heart and soul of this team. She leads the nation in three categories; three point shooting percentage, free throw percentage, and steals per game. She's a great all around player, but her most important attribute is the fact that she is an incredible leader. The other players believe in her and they feed off of her. It should be a great game, Jim."  
"I paid them well for that glowing endorsement."  
  
"This is so boring." Jason whispered to Robin after the game had been going on for a few minutes.  
  
"Jason."  
  
"You can't find this entertaining."  
  
"I like watching Steph play. She was good. And it's cool to hear what the announcers thought of her. Just watch for a little bit longer and then you can make an excuse to do something else."  
  
"Fine."  
  
"No, Steph don't make that pass. No. What was I thinking making that pass? Ugh, and then I committed the foul on the lay-up." She buried her face in her hands. "I should be benched for that, and not put back in the game until I learn my lesson. That was horrible."  
  
"It wasn't that bad. And you made up for it on the next play."  
  
The game continued, and with forty-five seconds, remaining Stanford was down four. Vandy was in bounding the ball underneath Stanford's basket. "Jones is having trouble in bounding the ball. She lofts it up. A steal by Anderson, she dishes the ball off to Marshall for the easy and most importantly quick two. Anderson went up like a wide receiver in football for that pass. Vandy with the ball, twenty-five seconds left on the clock. Sullivan takes the shot for Vandy, she misses, rebound Marshall who gives the ball off to Anderson. Anderson reaches the frontcourt and calls timeout. Fifteen seconds left on the game clock."  
  
Steph fast-forwarded through the timeout. "I miss basketball."  
  
She pushed play and the game came back on. "Keep in mind Stanford doesn't need a three pointer here. Lets see what they do. Marshall in bounds the ball to Kramer, Kramer dribbles top of the key. Ball goes to Anderson coming off the screen set by Marshall. Anderson shoots, she scores. Three- pointer by Anderson found nothing but the bottom of the net. A great screen by Marshall to get Anderson free. There is one second left on the clock, Vanderbelt has time for a catch and shoot in this situation. Jones baseball tosses it down into the frontcourt; the pass is tipped and caught by Anderson. Game over, and what an incredible game it was."  
  
She clicked off the tape. "That was one of my finer moments. I love basketball Johnny."  
  
"I know you do babe. I know we're moving back here someday."  
  
"You guys are too much." Syd said with a chuckle. All the while admiring the relationship the couple shared. They were so in tune with each other. She wanted what they had. She looked at Michael; she wanted it with him.  
  
"Robin."  
  
"I know, I know. Thank you for being good and watching the whole thing. I'll make it up to you later."  
  
"You promise."  
  
"I promise." 


	6. Ch 6

Yeah yeah, we know, it's been awhile. So sue us. This has been in process for at least a week if not two. We're still not exactly sure why this chapter turned out like it did, or why it is as excessively long as it is. The plot and the characters really like to run with themselves. We have a general idea what's going on, but they have lives of their own. We are still both in love with this story, and you DO NOT have to watch both shows to understand, it's pretty explanatory, and if it isn't, just let us know and we'll explain. The GH world we are in never existed, which is a pity, and the Alias world has been taken from the end of Phase One. Enjoy and please review!  
  
Laura and Carrie  
  
Once again the group was sequestered in an airport waiting for a flight. They had left Indianapolis  
  
airport a few hours before and were now waiting for a connecting flight from JFK to Port Charles. The six were sitting in the airport waiting for their private flight to Port Chalres to be ready.  
  
Robin turned to Jason with a huge smile. "We're nearly home!" She sighed as she leaned against him. "God I actually missed it."  
  
"It's just a town."  
  
"With my family and friends, and yours too. Not that you always acknowledge them," she said as she rolled her eyes.  
  
Jason merely sent her a pointed look as he pulled her closer. "You know I'm not about to spend my time acknowledging the Quartermaines as my family, they're insane."  
  
"They love you," Robin told him for the millionth time.  
  
"You keep saying that."  
  
Robin pushed back a bit and looked up at him. "You don't believe me?"  
  
Jason let out a sigh, he hadn't really wanted to get into this with her. "I know you love me, and that Emily and Grandmother do, and maybe Monica. And maybe they love me in their way, but it's not really love."  
  
Robin leaned into Jason again and they sat like that for a few minutes before Jason asked, "Are we going to have to go and see them?"  
  
Robin removed herself from his arms and hit him. "Yes! Jason."  
  
Jason scowled, not pleased that he would actually have to walk into the mansion. "Fine. But only once. And I reserve the right to shoot the old man."  
  
"Body counts already?" Vaughn asked rather sarcastically.  
  
Robin looked at him with a small smile on her face remembering the chaos of the Quartermaines. "You haven't met Jason's family."  
  
"No one could be worse than my family," Sydney commented.  
  
Jason snorted at that comment. "Clears sign you haven't met the Quartermaines." His phone rang at that moment and he quickly answered. "Morgan."  
  
His little sister's voice floated over the phone, sounding slightly anxious. "Jason, where are you?"  
  
Jason smiled at his sister's rather unconventional response. "Hi Em, nice to talk to you too. I'm at JFK."  
  
He could hear her smile on the other end of the line. "NO! Seriously?" she exclaimed, making Jason wonder if she were going to begin jumping up and down.  
  
"Yeah, I'll be in Port Charles in less than two hours."  
  
"See, cause I'd called your house, and no one has answered in days, and the cell hasn't been working that well."  
  
"Why are you so excited you're in Boston?" Jason asked, interrupting his sister's rambling when he got the chance.  
  
"I can be in Port Charles by tonight. I've missed you, and you are finally on the east coast, I'm not missing this opportunity to see you."  
  
"I've missed you too."  
  
"Is Robin there?" Emily asked hurriedly. "Is she coming too?"  
  
Jason dipped a glance down at his wife's head. "You honestly think I'd leave her behind?" he asked with a smile.  
  
Emily laughed. "No. You don't let her out of your sight half the time. So. are you two staying?"  
  
"No, part of a mission. We wanted to stop home first."  
  
The line went dead silent before Emily's voice floated through the phone. "Jason, how serious is this?" "You don't usually come home first."  
  
"It's not big," Jason said not wanting to worry Emily overly much. "Port Charles is just on the way and we've got some time."  
  
"Cool. Glad to hear it."  
  
Jason smiled compulsively. Hearing the happiness in his sisters voice was wonderful. "Knew you would be."  
  
"Grandmother and Mom would--"  
  
"Like to see me," Jason finished for his sister, not too thrilled with the idea. "I know."  
  
"Good. I'll see you in a few hours."  
  
Jason hung up his phone and put it away before he pulled his wife close again. Emily's coming to Port Charles"  
  
"And that bothers you?" Johnny asked confused.  
  
Jason leaned back and rolled his eyes. "She's going to bring her boyfriend."  
  
Robin grinned and snuggled into him. "Jason has issues," Robin clarified for Johnny. She could nearly picture the scene in her head when Jason would catch sight of whoever Emily was dating now.  
  
"Did you take your pills yet?" Jason asked changing the subject.  
  
Robin watch as Jason fidget waiting for her to either pick it up. "I need water," she said, knowing this would spring Jason into action.  
  
Jason nodded and stood. "Come on," he said, grabbing her hand and waiting for her to rise before dragging her off in search of water.  
  
Steph watch the younger couple head off, Robin obviously allowing Jason to pull her away to avoid explain whatever it was. They were quite in tune to each other, and happy. Not to mention how happy Robin seemed to be to be going home.  
  
And in Port Charles was Stephanie's family. God it had been too long since she had been back there to see them. Would Brenda and Zander have missed her? Had they needed her for anything? She let out a deep breath, she wasn't going to think about this, she wasn't.  
  
"What's wrong babe?"  
  
Stephanie turned and looked up at her husband, obvious concern in his eyes. Steph let out another sigh and leaned against him, hoping that having him support her like this would drain a bit of the tension away. "It's been too long since I've seen Brenda and Zander."  
  
Johnny bit back a sigh, knowing how much weight his wife put on having everyone depend on her. And when she felt like she was failing it only made things difficult. "They understand you have a job," Johnny said, rubbing a hand up and down her arm.  
  
"That doesn't excuse it," she told him tersely.  
  
Johnny felt a headache coming on and "They have their own lives, they appear to be happy. They don't need you to do it all for them all of the time."  
  
"You think I'm overbearing." It was less a question and more a very pissed of statement.  
  
"You have a tendency to perfect the lives of everyone around you," Johnny said carefully, trying to get himself out of whatever situation he had got himself in. "Not that that's a bad thing to want to do, but you have to know when your help is wanted and when it isn't."  
  
"I can tell," Steph said defiantly. Who the hell did her husband think she was? Bringing up her short comings in an airport.  
  
"No you can't," Johnny said with a soft chuckle. "Which is why you have me."  
  
Steph felt any residual anger fading away from her, which her husband seemed to be exceptionally talented at. "I love you."  
  
"Can you attempt to listen to me?" Johnny asked her, wondering if he was asking too much.  
  
Steph sent him her killer smile and nodded. "Attempt, yes."  
  
Johnny closed his eyes and let out a deep breath. "Let's pray that that will be enough."  
  
Michael had been sitting for a bit too long Not to far away from the group there was another couple standing apart, arguing.  
  
"I don't understand why the hell you're going," the woman yelled rather harshly as she stood across from him.  
  
The man pushed his fingers in the corners of his eyes as if to release pressure. "Hun I have to go, this has potential."  
  
The woman let out an aggravated growl. "Shawn, everything in your life has potential. The only thing that's actually worked out is me."  
  
The man only smiled at that one. "Which makes me a very lucky man."  
  
"Don't you ever forget it.  
  
Vaughn's attention was neatly snared by the arguing couple in the airport. They were interesting to say the least, the woman was dressed in gothic style clothing, and had red streaks through her dark brown tresses. The man was dressed in a business suit and looked. exactly like Eric.  
  
"How could I with you around?"  
  
And sounded just like him too. It was weird, the way this man resembled his best friend. "Syd, Syd." he said turning to his partner and tugging on her arm, causing her to stand.  
  
Sydney turned to stare at him like he was insane. "What! You're tugging on my arm like a two year old who has to go to the bathroom."  
  
"Look," Vaughn said, turning back and pointing.  
  
Syd looked in the direction that Vaughn was pointing in confused. There was absolutely nothing there. She turned back to him confused. "At what? A bunch of people milling around JFK."  
  
"Eric." Sydney continued to look at him like he was insane. Vaughn's eyes searched through the crowd but he couldn't spot the look alike. "He was there a minute ago," Michael insisted wondering if he really was crazy.  
  
Syd smiled at him and patted his arm in a patronizing matter. "Sure he was. Did you get enough sleep last night?" she asked narrowing her eyes at him.  
  
"Plenty," Vaughn snapped pulling out his cell phone. There was only one way to settle this, give Eric a call and make sure he was where he had promised to be.  
  
Sydney watched as Michael diligently hit numbers on his cell phone. "What are you doing?"  
  
"Calling Eric."  
  
Sydney threw her hands up in the air, knowing that because this little seed of doubt was planted in his head, Michael Vaughn wouldn't let it go till the matter was settled in his mind. "You're crazy!" she said sitting down again.  
  
"He's watching my dog alright," Vaughn explained, waiting for the ringing to stop and for his friend to pick up. "I just want to know that he's not skiving off on his duties."  
  
"Fine."  
  
Eric Weiss was buckling himself in to an airaplane seat when he cell phone rang. The person sitting next to him gave Eric a dirty look, but when Eric saw the number he knew he had to pick up. "Hello."  
  
"Eric. How are you?" Vaughn said, wondering where exactly his friend was. The man standing in the airport today could have easily been a clone of Eric.  
  
"I'm fine buddy. What's wrong?" he asked, clearly hearing the tenseness in Michael's voice. Something was wrong, and Eric started flipping through the reasons Michael would be calling him now.  
  
"Where are you?" Michael asked cautiously.  
  
'Where was Vaughn?' Eric wondered to himself. The woman next to him was still glaring at him. Now she opened her mouth and said, "Sir your not supposed to--"  
  
Damn, he did not need this woman blowing his cover. "Yeah, thanks," he said quickly, interrupting the woman. "I'm in LA where else would I be?" he said easily.  
  
"I could have sworn I just saw you in JFK."  
  
Oh he had. "You really must be losing it man."  
  
"You better be in LA; you're the one whose taking care of my dog," Vaughn's voice was menacing.  
  
"Of course. Donnie is in good hands." Vaughn wouldn't notice if Donnie had spent a few nights in a kennel would he?  
  
"He better be."  
  
"He is, he is. Now calm down and enjoy your time wherever you and Syd are," Weiss said, remembering that Vaughn was off on a mission with the esteemed Sydney Bristow. His mouth curved into a grin. "Have you gotten in her pants yet?"  
  
Vaughn glanced down at Sydney who was occupying himself with a magazine. Leave it to Eric to how much he wanted Sydney and to put it in an exceptionally crude manner. "You're disgusting."  
  
Erics grin only widened. "I'll take that as a no with a large side of sexual frustration."  
  
"Shut up," Vaughn muttered into the phone.  
  
"She's hot for you, and even if she isn't there are plenty of women in LA."  
  
"I don't care," he snapped. It was the combination of being too close to Sydney and then having his friend call on his desires that made him want to break something it two.  
  
"I thought so. Have fun," Eric said, hanging up the phone before the stewardess yelled at him.  
  
Sydney looked up at Vaughn with a bored glance. She wondered what exactly was going on in the conversation that had gotten Vaughn so riled up. "So?"  
  
"He's in LA," Vaughn said shortly, sitting down two chairs over.  
  
"Told you," Sydney said with a triumphant grin on her face.  
  
An announcement went over the intercom announcing that their fligth was ready. "That's our plane," Michael said, standing up and grabbing luggage.  
  
"Sure. Use that to get out of talking to me."  
  
Vaughn stopped ant turned. He looked at her. "You were right. There. End of conversation."  
  
"I was right."  
  
"Gloating isn't pretty."  
  
"I'm pretty."  
  
"Yes you are."  
  
"Plane. Got to go."  
  
"I am trying."  
  
Port Charles Airport  
  
Brenda paced around the airport waiting for her guests to arrive. "We're behind you." She heard Robin's voice.  
  
"Robin I've missed you so much." She said pulling her into a hug immediatly.  
  
"I've missed you too."  
  
"We have so much to catch up on." Brenda said excitedly.  
  
"Are you going to say hello to anyone else? Like your sister maybe?" Steph asked slightly hurt.  
  
Brenda released Robin and went to hug Johnny and then Steph. "I've missed you too. I love you Steph."  
  
"I love you too." She released Brenda. "This is Sydney and Michael."  
  
"Hi Sydney, Michael, its nice to meet you." She said shaking their hands. "Ok come on guys, lets go."  
  
"I can't believe Sonny's letting a fed in his house." Steph whispered to Johnny.  
  
"He lets us into his house. And something tells me Sonny doesn't know."  
  
"Alright, we're going to go. We have an appointment to go to."  
  
"Everything alright."  
  
"He's paranoid."  
  
"Jason, promise me you'll call and tell me what she doesn't."  
  
Jason simply nodded before leading his wife out of the airport and away from their friends. Brenda stared after them for a moment, wondering just how bad it was. She shook her head to dismiss any and all worries.  
  
"Alright, lets get going."  
  
"This should be fun," Syd said, giving Vaughn a smile as they walked behind the very comanding woman.  
  
"Fun?" Vaughn asked raising an eyebrow.  
  
"Optimisim. You're both going to need it," Johnny said rather grimly as he followed after his wife and her sister, who were wrapped up in conversation in front of everyone else.  
  
"Alright. Home sweet home," Brenda called out as she walked into her beloved penthouse. The lack of human beings was not what she was expecting. "Is there anybody here?" she called out into the empty space.  
  
"What?" Sonny called, peeking out from the kitchen.  
  
"How sweet," Brenda sneered. "We have company. Zander if you and Lacey dong come out from hiding in that bedroom, the door will be removed!" she shouted into the penthouse.  
  
"We're here," Zander said, coming out from his bedroom, with a girl trailing behind him. "Hey Steph," he said, crossing the room the rest of the way to his sister alone.  
  
"Zander!" Steph exclaimed, taking him into her arms excitedly, and closing her eyes as she held him close. "I've missed you."  
  
"I missed you too."  
  
"So what's new?" Steph asked, looking behind Zander to the girl standing nervously across the room. She looked like a normal teenager with the exception of a few pink streaks and a nose stud.  
  
"Oh," Zander turned with a smile on his face to his girlfriend. He held out a hand and the girl tentatively came to him. "Lacey, this is my other older sister Stephanie, Steph this is Lacey."  
  
"It's nice to meet you Steph, Zander talks about you all the time."  
  
"Mmhmm."  
  
"Steph?"  
  
"It's a pleasure."  
  
"And this is Michael and Sydney Vaughn, they're friends of Steph and Johnny's."  
  
"And they work with us."  
  
"Feds?" Sonny's voice boomed as eh came out of the kitchen to glare at Michael and Sydney. "I cannot believe you brought feds into my house," he said, turingin his glare on his wife and her sister.  
  
Brenda stepped in front of him and put her foot down. "Sonny we have Steph and Johnny here all the time."  
  
"That's different. She's your sister and I trust her enough not to say anything because it would hurt you. You two better watch it," Sonny warned Syd and Vaughn before disappearing into the kitchen again.  
  
"Don't worry about him, he refuses all medication that could help his condition," Brenda told everyone in the room in a stage whisper.  
  
"I heard that," Sonny yelled.  
  
"What I don't hear is the sound of you cooking!" Brenda shouted back. "And if I don't hear it soon I'm going to come in there and start messing with all of your pots and pans."  
  
Jason and Robin sat in Alan's office after Robin had been through a battery of tests. Currently robin was sitting on Jason's lap and wrapped up in his arms. Neither of them really wanted to think about what Alan would soon be in to tell him about. After a few minutes, Alan entred and causing the couple to tense up.  
  
"Alan, would you just tell us what the hell is going on?" Jason asked after Alan had meticulously come into the room and sat down.  
  
"Jason," Robin reprimanded. It never failed to surprise her how rude Jason could be when it came to her doctors, well any doctors. Especially Alan.  
  
"What?" Jason asked looking down at Robin. He let out a sigh as she looked up at him expectantly. "Sorry," he muttered at Alan "Explain now."  
  
"It's just your medication Robin, it's taking a bit longer for you to adjust and has made you slightly more anemic than usual," Alan said plainly, his words causing Robin to sink deeper into Jason's arms.  
  
"Does she need transfusions?" Jason asked worriedly, remembering the extent that the medications could hurt Robin.  
  
Alan shook his head, seeing the "No, it hasn't gotten that bad. So I would suggest keeping a close eye, more rest, a healthier diet, keep a closer eye on her and leave the medication alone hoping she'll adjust all the way soon."  
  
Robin sighed, knowing that Jason wasn't going to let this go. "Can we go now?"  
  
"Yes. I'll see you two again won't I?" Alan asked hopefully.  
  
"Yes," Robin said, turning to look at him with a smile, squeezing Jason's hand, knowing that wasn't the answer he wanted.  
  
"I'm going to drop you off at Brenda's and you better take a nap," Jason told Robin as they got in the elevator. "I'm going to pick up Emily."  
  
"What about not telling me what to do?" Robin asked half playfully.  
  
Jason turned to her, the worry that he had earlier still lingering in his eyes. "Would you please take a nap?" he asked softly, stroking has hand down her cheek.  
  
"Yeah, if that means we can take one together later," Robin said with a suggestive look in her eyes.  
  
Jason smiled, putting an arm around her shoulders and pulling her close. "We'll see."  
  
At the penthouse things weren't going so well. Brenda and Lacey were talking with Syd and Michael, partially out of interest, partially to keep them out of Sonny's hair so there wouldn't be a fight. Zander watched his sister for a few moments, before going to sit next to her on the couch.  
  
"Steph what's wrong with you?" Zander asked, walking over to his sister. "You've barely said two words to Lacey since you've been here and have been giving her your infamous dagger eyes. What gives?"  
  
Steph shot a slanted glance to the girl who was comfortably making conversation with Robin and Brenda. "Zander, are you sure she was the prime candidate for your girlfriend? I'm sure there were plenty of other."  
  
"Other what?" Lacey asked, having overheard Steph's words when she'd come over to them unnoticed. "Nice girls. You think because I've got streaks in my hair and a hole in my nose I'm some kind of punked up drugged out girl whose using your brother for his trust fund," she shouted angrily, causing Steph to stand. "I've known Zander longer than you have, I don't remember not knowing him, and I've been in love with him for just about as long. I've got a pretty little trust find of my own. So next time get to know a girl before you decide she ought to go." With that Lacey ran for the door making the quickest get away possible.  
  
"Damn it. Lacey!" Zander called out as he started after her.  
  
Johnny stepped in front of Zander and forced him to stand still. "Slow down there kiddo, I'll get her. You two talk!" he ordered, giving his wife a pointed look.  
  
Zander turned on his sister, his golden eyes blazing. "I cannot believe you!"  
  
"What did you expect me to think of her?" Steph asked him wishing she had gone out after the girl to teach her a lesson she wouldn't soon forget. "Looking like she does."  
  
"Looking like she does!" Zander said, thinking of the temporary pink hair dye his girlfriend had done as a bit of fun. "Glad to know you got to know her first before you judged her. Glad to know you think I have such horrible taste in women."  
  
"You have a tendency to make horrible mistakes with life, why not with women as well?" Stephanie asked him.  
  
"I love her, she loves me. Is that honestly so hard for you to accept?"  
  
"And did you hear her comment of her knowing you longer than I have?"  
  
"A. She's known me since she was born and I was three so essentially she's right, b, you hurt her so she struck out." Zander sighed, knowing the way he was going about this was most likely all wrong. "Look I know you love me, I'm well aware and I love you too, but you cannot treat Lacey like that."  
  
Stephanie let out a frustrated breath, knowing her brother may have had a small point. "Maybe I'll try to be a bit nicer."  
  
"You better. I'm only praying that Johnny actually convinces her to come home tonight," Zander said, his gaze returning to the door.  
  
That comment struck Steph the wrong way. She had tried to be nice and still he snapped at her. "You know, I'm sorry, but do you remember what happened between you and Emily? She went and ripped your heart out. So I'm sorry if I was worried about something like that happening to you again."  
  
"I know you care, but trust me. And if we didn't risk it, it wouldn't be worth it," he said simply.  
  
"If she ever really hurts you I will kill her."  
  
"I know," Zander said nodding before returning to his room.  
  
The tension in the penthouse was thick.  
  
"Robin!"  
  
"I'll take it I don't want to know."  
  
"No. So where's Jason."  
  
"Picking up Emily. Bren I'm a bit tired, would you mind if I laid down for a bit."  
  
"Sure. Are you okay?"  
  
"I'll be fine."  
  
"Alright, come on, you can borrow the guest room for a bit. Steph and Johnny won't mind."  
  
Johnny walked down the stars of the docks and found the missing girl down there. He could tell by the way she was pacing and muttering that she was clearly pissed off. Maybe this wasn't the best idea he had had in awhile, but if he'd sent anyone else out here there only would have been more trouble.  
  
"Hey."  
  
Lacey stopped her pacing and turned to look at him. "Did anyone ever tell you your wife is a bitch?" she asked angrily, really wanting to get rid of this man.  
  
Johnny tensed up but knew better than to respond angrily, this girl had been hurt. "I wouldn't suggest saying that to her."  
  
She narrowed her eyes at him with heat . "I'm not completely stupid."  
  
"She means well."  
  
"She comes across as harsh and cruel." Lacey let out a breath. "You know, I honestly love Zander. I tried to be nice to her, to be presentable. Stephanie and Brenda mean the world to Zander, and because they are important to him they are important to me. But I refuse to be treated like crap and degraded. I do not need to be thought of as someone unworthy when she doesn't even know me."  
  
"No she doesn't, but Steph is used to making snap judgments. It's kept her alive." Johnny said trying to reason his wife's behavior.  
  
"Then she should know the packaging doesn't always equate with who is inside."  
  
"She's not going to apologize," Johnny explained, wanting to let this girl know exactly what she was up against. "Look, Steph is insanely protective of the people she cares about. She probably would have warmed up to you. Going off on her was stupid."  
  
That brought a bit more heat into Lacey's eyes. "What? I should have backed down and been complacent? Pretended that I didn't hear what she said and that she was being colder to me than most human beings deserve."  
  
"No, but you have to pick your spots with her, and you picked the wrong one. See, she probably would have respected you for having the nerve to stand up to her, after I talked her out of killing you that is. But you took a dig at her relationship with Zander."  
  
"She did no less with me."  
  
"She's the classic big sister. She takes her role as big sister very seriously."  
  
"Well then I'm sorry I stepped on her precious toes," Lacey quipped sarcastically.  
  
"See there's that attitude again. You don't seem to understand something. She can hurt you. She will hurt you. She'll take you defending Zander to a degree. But she won't take your attitude."  
  
"Do you know what it is to be asked to respect someone who clearly has no respect for you?" she asked, the hurt radiating through. To Lacey it was an insult to be asked to fall to this other woman because of her power. "I get that she can hurt me, and I'm not sure if she would right now because Zander is involved, but even if she would I am not about her to give her something she clearly can't give me. I'll be nice to her, walk on eggshells if I have to, because it will keep all of your God damn peace, but if she insults me like that again, she can do whatever she likes to me afterwards."  
  
Johnny breathed out a sigh and shook his head. "You don't get it."  
  
"I do. But what no one seems to understand is that I have as much right to be with Zander and stand my ground as she does. Because she could kill me does not mean she has a right to treat me like dirt. If she'd like the truth, I worship the ground Zander walks on, have for forever. Sure he can be stupid, drugs for example, and I've called him on it. I would do just about anything for him, but being treated as if I'm subhuman isn't one of them."  
  
"You don't have to take what she dishes out, and you shouldn't be treated horribly. But you want to know something, you come off as a girl with a really big attitude problem. Steph does not deal well with people who have attitude problems, in fact she usually adjusts their attitude. She would have given you a chance, she'd do anything for Zander."  
  
Lacey just shook her head, why had she thought this man would understand, he was married to the woman. "Tell Zander I'm going to crash with some friends and I'll see him tomorrow," she said walking off the docks and leaving Johnny behind.  
  
Johnny came back in to the penthouse to find his wife sitting in the living room with Sydney and Michael. Zander came out into the main room the instant he heard the door open.  
  
"Where's Lacey?" he asked his brother-in-law.  
  
"With friends I think. She said she'd see you tomorrow."  
  
"Damn! I'm going to see if I can figure out who," Zander said, quickly retreating out of the room.  
  
Steph got up from her seat and walked to where her husband was standing by the door."Can you believe the nerve of that girl and then not coming back?"  
  
"I don't think she was in the mood to stare you down a second time," Johnny said taking his wife into his arms.  
  
"Well at least she was smart enough for that. I am not done with her."  
  
"She wanted you to like her and you clearly didn't," Johnny said with a sigh, hating this whole situation. "She knows Zander thinks the world of you and you basically told her you thought nothing of her."  
  
Steph pushed back and glared up at him. "Whose side are you on?"  
  
"Zanders." Johnny said, taking the neutral choice. "He does not need this right now."  
  
"Maybe I insulted her a bit, but that does not mean that she had any right to say what she did."  
  
"Do you think she was thinking of anything other than striking out at you and defending her right to stand by your brother? You threatened her just by walking in the door today."  
  
"Maybe I was a bit harsh. And there's a possibility she's not what I thought."  
  
"Always a possibility," Johnny said, not wanting to make more of an issue out of it than it was.  
  
"And maybe it was kind of brave of her. But do not think that that 'I've known Zander longer than you,' crap will go unnoticed," Steph said, jabbing at him with her finger.  
  
"I don't expect it to."  
  
"Good."  
  
Vaughn leaned over and causally wrapped an arm around Sydney. She gave him a funny look and he raised his eyebrows as if to say 'we want them to believe us don't we?' He leaned in a bit closer and whispered. "I love how we have to have one argument every place we go."  
  
Sydney now clearly gave him a look. "Vaughn."  
  
"I'm serious!" he exclaimed louder than he had wanted too.  
  
"So am I. You and Will fought in LA so technically we started the precedent," Sydney charged causing Michael to bite his tongue and sit back on the sofa.  
  
Once he was sure the main room of his own penthouse had stopped being a battleground Sonny exited the kitchen to stare at all assembled. No one he was that fond of. "When is Jason getting back with Em and her boyfriend? I'm hungry." Sonny said.  
  
Just then the door opened and Jason, Emily and her boyfriend walked in. "Danny." Johnny said shocked to see his little brother enter the penthouse.  
  
"Oh no, Steph's got that I'm going to kill somebody look in her eye." Danny said noticing the look in his sister in law's eyes."  
  
Emily looked between Steph and Danny. Whatever was going on she knew it wasn't going to be good. "You guys know each other?" Emily asked confused.  
  
"Em, this is my brother Johnny, and his wife Stephanie. Johnny, Steph, this is Emily, my girlfriend."  
  
Brenda and Robin were midway down the stairs as Danny started the introductions. They both quickly went to join everyone else. "This is going to get ugly again." Brenda said to the rest of the group.  
  
"Your dating the same girl who broke my brother's heart," Stephanie charged, advancing on Danny with anger in her eyes.  
  
"Your Zander, is her Zander." He asked looking at Emily.  
  
"Nice to see you again Danny," Zander said making his presence known. Today really could not get any worse.  
  
"You broke up with my brother for him?" Steph asked Emily pointing at Danny.  
  
"Hey, I thought you liked me?" Danny asked hurt.  
  
Steph flashed him a quick grin. "I love you, that's not the point."  
  
"So what is the point?" Danny asked defensively.  
  
"I'm just trying to figure this all out, that's all," Steph said, rubbing her hands over her face. "I mean for months, I heard about how in love this girl was with my brother. Then she's in a terrible accident, and has to go away for rehab, I'm glad to see you're better by the way. But still my brother loves you and you're still everything to him. Then out of no where you tell him you're in love with someone else. If you're going to be in love with someone who isn't Zander you're never going to find anyone better then Danny. That doesn't change the fact that you didn't treat my brother very well, why should I believe you'd treat my brother in law any better?"  
  
"I love Danny."  
  
"You loved Zander too, didn't you?"  
  
"It seems you have a problem with my sister." Jason told Steph coldly, stepping in front of Emily cleanly and efficently.  
  
Steph wasn't the least bit bothered and stood toe to toe with Jason. "I do in fact."  
  
"Get rid of it," he growled at her.  
  
"Why should I? Because you say so?" Steph asked crossing her arms.  
  
"She's my sister, and I'm not going to let you hurt her."  
  
"But its fine for her to hurt my brother?" Steph asked casually.  
  
Jasons mind flashed back to everything that his sister had went through when she was with Zander. Whne she called him to tell him that there was someone else, he couldn't have been happier. "Your brother didn't deserve my sister, and I'm not sure you're brother in law does either."  
  
"Steph come stand over here by me." Johnny said evenly. She shot him a quzzical look. "You're this close to hitting him, and that's the last thing this group needs right now."  
  
She turned on Johnny. "You're going to let him talk about your brother like that?"  
  
"Guys." Robin said speaking up. "Why don't you guys let it drop. They don't seem to have too big a problem with the situation."  
  
"I do," Danny said finally. "I want to know if Johnny was going to let him say I was unworthy."  
  
"Shut up Danny," Johnny snapped at his brother.  
  
"Don't talk to him like that, I want to know too, were you going to let Jason badmouth your brother in an attempt to keep the peace?" Steph asked her husband.  
  
"What do you want from me Steph?" Johnny asked, throwing his arms out. "Do you want me to tell you, I think you're right about this whole situation? I do, I think you're right. I have questions about this girl, I think Jason is way out of line in is comments about both of our brothers. What good does admitting that do? Now my brother is going to be pissed at me because I don't like his girlfriend. Jason is going to be pissed at both of us because we don't like his sister."  
  
"Let's eat." Brenda said when she was tired of the argument. "Sonny aren't you proud of me. I minded my own business during that whole fight."  
  
Later that Night, Steph was sitting down on the couch of her sister's penthouse. She was going through a file, partially because she couldn't sleep. Her head snapped up when she heard the sound of a key in the lock of the door. She instantly reached out for gun but stopped when she reconised the figure.  
  
"Hey," she called out of the darkness.  
  
Lacey stopped dead in her tracks when her eyes came to rest on Steph. She clearly made a move that was clear that she was hesitating coming in. "I so did not expect you to be awake," she said letting out her breath when she realized that Steph didn't have a gun pointed at her.  
  
"Clearly. Why are you here?" Steph asked, raising herself off of the couch.  
  
"I didn't say goodnight," Lacey clarified, wanting what could turn into the Spanish Inquisition to be over. "It was rude of me and I planned to fix it."  
  
"You were going to wake up Sonny and Brenda to say goodnight?" Steph asked wryly.  
  
Lacey let out a breath. "No Zander. Look, he's been hurt in the past, and I should have come back to see him. He's just going to lie awake and worry about me. So I figured I'd save him the trouble."  
  
"He has been hurt in the past, I'm glad you're trying to be different," Steph said, emphasizing the word trying.  
  
Lacey stood there and considered for a moment. "I might have gone a bit overboard with the knowing Zander longer crap," she started cautiously. "I'm sorry if I hurt you."  
  
"Glad to hear it. You might not be as bad as I thought you were."  
  
The two women just stood there staring at one another for a few minutes when another voice came out of the dark. "Take two steps away from each other, Johnny keep an eye on them while I turn on the lights."  
  
"There really isn't any need," Lacey said, crossing to Zander. She looped her arms around his neck and looked up at him with apologetic eyes. "I'm sorry."  
  
"For what?" Zander asked confused.  
  
"Not coming back."  
  
Zander laid a kiss on the top of her head. "Come on," he said, offering her his hand and leading her off to their room.  
  
"Alright, can you come to bed now?" Johnny asked his wife, hoping that she would let it go.  
  
"They share a bed," she said as if she had never thought of something so appaling.  
  
"Steph," Johnny warned her. It had been a long day, all he wanted was some sleep.  
  
Steph watched after where Zander and Lacey had disappeared for a few moments. "Maybe she isn't so bad," she said for a few minutes before letting Johnny drag her up to bed.  
  
Jason and Robin's Place  
  
Jason and Robin had retreated to the home they kept in Port Charles for situations like this one. "Say something."  
  
"Steph has some nerve." Jason told Robin angrily.  
  
Robin sighed. "She was defending her brother you should understand that."  
  
"Robin."  
  
"Jason." Robin started. She paused trying to put this the right way. "For someone who doesn't know Em and the kind of person she is, she comes off looking pretty badly in this situation."  
  
"You know her brother kidnapped my sister. Got her in a bus accident that paralyzed her. Am I supposed to forget that?" Jason snapped thinking back to all that Emily had gone through in her relationship with Zander.  
  
"No you're not. But he is still her brother and she is going to defend him. And lets remember your other sister got both Emily and Zander on that bus." Robin reminded him, not wanting him to place all of the blame on Zander.  
  
"That woman is not my sister."  
  
"Jason."  
  
"And you know, they didn't have to take the damn money, or get on the bus." Jason continued angrily.  
  
"You're right they didn't, but THEY did. Emily and Zander got on that bus. He didn't make her, she wanted to be with him." Robin calmly pointed out.  
  
"Robin."  
  
"Fine." Robin said with a sigh. "What about your comment about Danny? Was that neccessary?"  
  
"I'm worried about my sister is that a crime? And no it probably wasn't necessary." He reluctantly admitted.  
  
"Its not a crime. In fact I find you very cute when you're all protective." Robin said with a suggestive smile.  
  
"Is that so?"  
  
"Yup."  
  
"Prove it." He challenged her.  
  
She didn't say anything just leaned in and kissed him.  
Syd and Vaughn's hotel  
  
"Those people have issues. They make our families look like the Brady's." Vaughn said as he was channel surfing, trying to find Sportscenter so he could check the scores.  
  
"Have you forgotten my Mother shot me?" Sydney asked him. "Cause I've got the bullet wound to remind you." She said pointing to her shoulder.  
  
He dropped the remote and got up and went to stand in front of her. "I don't need a reminder." Vaughn said softly grabbing her hand.  
  
"Why do you keep looking at me like that?" She asked him warily.  
  
Confused he asked, "Like what?"  
  
"Like you... Never mind."  
  
"How long are we going to ignore what's between us Syd?" Vaughn questioned her.  
  
"I don't know what you're talking about. I'm going to  
  
go take a shower." She said disappearing into the bathroom and away from Vaughn and the conversation she wasn't ready to have with him. 


End file.
